UnOfficially Keeping Them Sane
by starfishbeliever
Summary: JONAS A series of connected oneshots picking up from where Exam Jam left off. It's the story of Macy's summertime adventures on tour with the Lucas boys. Since the premiere of JONAS LA, this is officially AU. Nacy with hints of Joella.
1. Summer Suprises

a/n: So this started out as a one shot I was working on whilst dealing with two friends in crisis… as I wrote it though I started to see the potential for a somewhat chapter-esque fic. Right now it's looking like it'll be a series of connected one shots all set after Exam Jam in the summer set up by this first one.

Disclaimer: I don't own JONAS, the episode referenced, or anything that's obviously property of Disney.

Unofficially Keeping Them Sane

Summer Surprises

Macy signed off the internet with a quick click; sliding further back in the swivel chair and sighing heavily. She was sure her JONAS-heads would love the video podcast detailing the band's dramatic pre-tour preparation, but somehow she couldn't find the same enthusiasm. She knew why of course, but, being Macy, she didn't like to dwell on the negatives, so, trying to distract herself' she fiddled around with Nick's laptop. The fact in itself that the youngest third of JONAS had lent her _his_ laptop to use brought back a shadow of a smile. Macy was well aware that, just a few months prior, the thought of _her_ touching _his_ laptop would have caused Macy to pass out in a fan girl haze and Nick to hide the treasured object for fear of what she might do to it if she was allowed to hold it. Things had certainly changed, Macy thought to herself, smiling a little more as she remembered how eager Nick had been to help her both with filming and editing… even if his camera holding skills left a little to be desired, so much so that she had kindly offered to use his webcam instead when it came to some of her monologues.

And there she was again, back to thinking about the video podcast and therefore the tour. Macy glared momentarily at the game of solitaire she had just opened and lost, and then closed it quickly, allowing Nick's background to retake the screen. It was a picture of the five of them at the local zoo, Joe with his arm slung around Stella who was laughing at something Kevin had said. Nick and Macy were half-crouching in front of the others to allow for the best group shot, and somehow she had convinced him to curve his fingers into tiger claws with her and bare his teeth in what was supposed to be a fearsome snarl. Only, Frankie had taken the picture at the exact moment that both Nick and Macy had cracked into laughter.

Macy smiled half-heartedly, tracing the mouse over each face in the picture. At that moment, she knew exactly where each Lucas brother was. They were here, at home, with her. Joe and Stella were attacking the packing of all of Frankie's clothing - Stella had decided that there was no age too young to start dressing stylishly - while Kevin distracted the little man with a "who can create the most disgusting yet delicious ice cream sundae" competition in the kitchen… a contest that Macy had somehow gotten roped into judging. Nick meanwhile was in the sound booth, checking that all the music they needed was already packed and not forgotten, and probably sharing a tender farewell with his equipment.

"Ugh," Macy groaned, throwing her hands up in the air. No matter what she did, her mind kept going back to the fact that her friends were leaving her for an _entire_ summer. She glared at the picture on the screen for a full moment before her eyes softened and she sighed, releasing her anger slowly. She gently touched her finger to each of the brothers' faces, silently apologizing for forgetting that they were rock stars and had responsibilities, and that they would never disappoint their fans, and that that was why she had fallen in love with them when they were just JONAS and not the Lucas brothers, and why she had still found them awesome when they had switched from idols to friends.

Macy's finger hovered over Stella's face for an extra second. She _hated_ this. Of course Macy was really, _really_ proud of Stella for getting the internship. She knew what a big deal it was, and how hard it was going to be for Stella, and all the opportunities it would unlock and all that, but… well, Macy had harbored a silly, ridiculous hope that, when Stella went on tour with the boys again, Macy might just get to go with her. Plus there was the whole thing that, without Joe around, there was absolutely no guarantee that Stella was going to be around all that often this summer. Her new boss was sure to keep her working once he realized how talented Stella was, and more work for Stella would mean less friend-time for Macy.

"I'm a horrible friend," Macy exclaimed angrily, hating her self for being selfish.

"No you're not," Nick remarked calmly, coming around the corner, eyebrows raising an eyebrow as he put a stack of CDs down beside her, careful not to tip the stack over.

"Am too," Macy covered her face in her hands, squishing her cheeks with her palms.

"Are not," repeated Nick calmly, sitting himself down on the floor, leaning back against the desk leg, looking up at her.

For a moment they sat that way in silence, Macy unwilling to start a 'too versus not' battle, and Nick viewing it as a competition of who could stay silent the longest.

He lost.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked slowly, not really sure of how to go about finding out what was wrong. Most of the time Macy was at one emotional setting - joyful, and he didn't really know how to tackle sad-Macy. Dealing with sad girls was much more of Joe's forte after all the time he'd practiced with Stella.

"No, I'm fine" Macy replied flatly, dropping her hands and staring at Nick in slight horror. She couldn't begin to imagine how bad it would be if she were to reveal her slight resentment towards Stella. A resentment that was completely overshadowed by her pride in her friend and which should so not even be allowed to take over one minute of the time she had left with her friends.

"I'm fine," she repeated with a bit more energy, "How's everything going?"

Nick raised both eyebrows at her complete one-eighty, but, relieved that he had escaped having to deal with a sad-Macy, he let it go.

"It's good…?" he started, not really sure where she wanted him to go with his answer, "The packing is all done, Kevin has his guitars boxed and ready, Joe and Stella have finished designing Frankie's Stella-Approved outfit list, Dad's gone through two crises in the past hour…"

Macy smiled slightly, "Once he starts having 'em six minutes apart we'll have to take him to the hospital."

"Ugh, _Macy_," Nick groaned at her bad joke, swatting her playfully with his hand.

"Ugh, _Nick_," she mimicked, scooting off her chair to join him on the floor.

The smiled at each other for a minute, content with the moment as it was.

"So…" Macy started, turning to face the windows, "Are you excited for the tour?"

Nick blinked, confused at her change in tone, "Of course," he answered carefully, "Aren't you?"

Macy's head snapped around to stare at him and for a moment Nick could see a plethora of emotions spinning in her eyes; hurt, shock, confusion… guilt.

Just as quickly as her mask had dropped Macy pulled it back on, pushing a fake smile back onto her lips and placing her gaze firmly on Nick's bed. She couldn't let him know how forlorn she was going to be without them, without _him_. She tried to focus on the positive; surely she'd find entertainment somehow, maybe she'd join a volleyball league or something. He had performances to give and people to please; she had to be a friend first, a good friend who was fully supportive of him leaving… even if it meant leaving her.

"I…," Macy bit her lip, lying to him was hard, so she changed to an omission instead, which was easier, "Why wouldn't I be excited? My favorite band is going on tour, world-wide nonetheless."

"Oh," Nick was still confused; Macy's lack of excitement about the tour perturbed him. She was so easily excited over the simplest things, like a new font on the school's letter jackets, and this was hardly a small matter.

"Yep," Macy responded calmly, reaching up onto the desk behind her and pulling her video camera down, she began fiddling with the controls.

"Oh, heck no!" Nick reached over and snagged the camera, "No more footage, you _promised_!"

Macy rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, but otherwise didn't protest his seizure of her camera.

"So, how'd the podcast turn out anyway?" He asked, clicking the record button absentmindedly, pressing buttons on the camera to maximize the lighting, and playing with the zoom features.

Macy smiled her first real smile in a while, "It turned out great; I think the JONAS-heads are going to _adore_ it. It's got just the right mix of happy, romance and drama. Speaking of, I don't know if I ever actually congratulated you on the math score? Trigonometry is a _beast_, getting a ninety-nine, well, wow."

Nick carefully turned the camera to film his face and gave the lens a very cocky grin, "Well I am a genius you know…"

"Three points shy actually," Macy corrected automatically, smirking when Nick glared at her.

When he mock-shoved her however she dropped the smirk, "Oy, be careful with my camera Lucas, the fans are going to want another podcast someday, and imagine their response if I tell them that Nick Lucas broke my camera?"

Nick shook his head knowingly, "They'd probably want to buy the pieces off e-bay."

Macy blinked half-angrily, but then relented, "This is true, but all the same, be careful with it, for me?"

He couldn't resist zooming in on her pouting face; she was just too… cute. He half wondered if she'd let him keep this footage, he could probably screenshot that image out and… well he wasn't sure what he'd do with it, but it'd be nice to have a picture of just Macy. He had some of her with him and his brothers, and some with her with Stella, but none of just her, and certainly none of just him _and_ her… he would have to fix that.

"Earth to Nick," Macy waved her hand in front of his face, "You still in there bucko?"

"Oh! Sorry Mace, I guess I drifted," he ran his free hand through his hair, trying not to blush.

Macy rolled her eyes, "Now, if we were to show _this_ to the fans, we'd have a completely different reaction," she joked quietly. Really though, she'd rather keep this side of Nick to herself.

"Right you are," he nodded, then had a horrible thought, "Speaking of showing things to the fans, you didn't tell them---"

"No of course I didn't tell them how, where and when you're leaving!" Macy cut him off looking a little hurt, "I'd never compromise your safeties like that… plus," she added sheepishly, "I don't know myself."

Nick laughed, surprised, "Something about the Lucases even Miss Misa doesn't know? Wow!"

"Oh be quiet Nick, either tell me or don't," she responded, sticking out her tongue and crossing her arms.

"Well if you insist," Nick straightened up some, reciting the information in his 'I'm the responsible and in charge brother' voice, "We're leaving at approximately seven am on Wednesday morning."

"Approximately?" Macy asked, feigning interest. Wednesday was only two days away. That was only two days to spend with Nick… and Kevin and Joe.

"Have you ever tried going anywhere with Dad?" Nick laughed, and when Macy shook her head he continued, "We'll leave at eight. Well, we'll leave at seven, but then we'll come back because he'll have forgotten something essential. Then we'll leave again only to return because Mom won't believe he remembered to turn off the lights. Sometimes he does remember, sometimes he doesn't, but it's sporadic enough that we always come back to check. Then we'll leave for the third time, only to realize as we reach the highway that we either a, forgot Kevin, b, forgot Frankie or c, that Joe left his hair styling box at home."

Macy laughed, "Joe's hair products are at the same level of awful as forgetting a brother?!"

Nick just raised an eyebrow sending her into a longer series of giggles.

"Okay, okay, stupid question" she acknowledged as she caught her breath, "I forgot who we were talking about there for a minute."

"Yeah," Nick smiled back, enjoying the fact that he'd brought Macy out of her sad state even if he still didn't know what had caused it. They passed a few minutes comparing stories of Joe's hair drama before sinking into another stretch of amicable silence.

"So," Macy sighed, and to Nick's horror she seemed to relapse into her earlier sadness, "Eight am on Wednesday, huh?"

"Yeah…" Nick sighed in return, but then thought of a reminder that might cheer her up some, "What time do you want us to pick you up? The first departure, or after we forget Frankie?"

Macy turned her entire body to lock eyes with Nick, "Excuse me?"

Nick blinked back, confused, the question had made sense to him, "I mean, on Wednesday, do you want to experience all the drama or would you rather get the extra time to sleep or do whatever it is girls do in the mornings?"

"No I mean… _I'm_ coming _with_ you?" Macy asked mouth agape. She was so confused. Hadn't anyone told Nick that Stella wasn't going? What was he playing at, making it sound like they were going to take her with them? If it was a trick… but was Nick really that cruel?

"Yes…?" Nick stared back at Macy, feeling as if the incredulity in her face must surely be mirrored in his own, "Didn't you err, I mean, you know that you're coming right?"

"No, she doesn't, and if you had spent any time in the past week _not_ freaking out, you'd know that she doesn't know too!" Stella had arrived, Joe in tow, obviously torn between amusement and annoyance.

"What?" Nick stared up at Stella, who made the strain on his neck easier by flopping down on his bed across from him, Joe landing beside her when she tugged on his hand.

"I was going to _surprise_ her," Stella spoke slowly in her explanation, using wide hand gestures to emphasize her points, "Her family has known for weeks and weeks but _she_ didn't have a clue. I was going to do it tonight actually, after I sneak-packed for her. She's been depressed for _weeks_ about not going with you, and I was going to wait to surprise her the morning of your trip, but after all this drama with you guys going and then not going and then going again, I had a sort of best-friend epiphany. See, you're all leaving me, but, as far as Macy knew, we were _all_ leaving her, with no fancy internship or anything to lessen the pain. And that just wasn't fair to propagate."

"Wait, wait, _hold it_!" Macy raised both of her hands out, palm up in the universal 'freeze' sign, "_I'm _going on the tour, _without_ Stella?"

"Uh, yeah," Nick, nodded absentmindedly, finally realizing why Macy had been so sad earlier - she had thought that they were _leaving_ her. As if he'd let _that_ happen.

"But, but, why?" Macy asked quietly. It wasn't that she didn't _want_ to go - she wanted to go so badly it hurt, but she was surprised and hesitant. She was a girl of manners and pride; she didn't want to be a charity case _or_ a burden on her friends.

"Because," Joe began, but Kevin cut him off as he joined the group's oval, "You're Macy," Kevin said simply.

"Very elaborate answer, Kevin," Stella rolled her eyes, gesturing for Joe to continue, but Nick shook his head.

"Kevin really said it all Stella," Nick remarked carefully, "She's _Macy_, and that's why she has to come with us on tour. We need her."

Macy's heart felt like it might explode and she felt herself smiling so wide it was sure to cause her face to get stuck that way, the Lucases needed her! Nick Lucas _needed_ her.

"You need me?" she asked through her smile.

"Heck yes!" Joe jumped on the question first, eager to finally get his chance to talk, "Who else knows fan girl behavior like you? Big Man is dying to get your input on security."

"And the Frankster adores you," Kevin added quickly, "You never let us forget when we're playing hide and seek with him."

"Which is a big deal!" the boy in question shouted from where he was obviously listening in down below.

"And officially, you're listed as 'assistant stylist,'" Stella added, knowing that Macy wouldn't really feel content until she had an official job to do.

"And unofficially," Nick smiled, "You're listed as 'the one who keeps the band's songwriter sane when surrounded by this lot'."

Macy giggled at Nick's title for her, but directed her attention first towards Stella, "But Stella, I'm hardly _you_ when it comes to fashion. I can dress myself, and am an ace with a tide-to-go pen, but…"

"I know Macy," Stella laughed, "But I've given you a list of exactly what they're allowed to wear in each location, and configured your phone with a mini-Stellavator app on it - patent pending - to give you what they can wear in cases of dire emergency. There's no one else I'd trust more to make sure this lot stick to their allotted clothing. Joe in particular likes to get creative…"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," the boy remarked with a scowl.

"Only because it is," she retorted immediately. A pillow fight would likely have ensued if Macy hadn't spoken first.

"So," she began, looking at all her friends.

"My mom and dad know about this?" The group nodded, Stella quickly summarized her parents opinions on the matter before letting Macy continue.

"And Stella's going to pack for me? I'd hardly know what to wear on this tour…" The boys shrugged, but Stella confirmed that she had already created half of a new wardrobe for Macy and was just waiting to get into her closet to finish the job. She would probably have detailed every new item of clothing she'd made if Macy hadn't cut her off, determined to finish.

"And I'm not just a pity-case?" she asked quickly and quietly, like a band-aid.

"Of _course not!!!_" Nick was shocked that she could even think that way; didn't she see how awesome it was going to be for all of them to have her with them on tour?

Macy smiled widely at his vehemence, so strong that it was obviously true, before finishing her questions with, "I'm really going on tour with my friends, aren't I?"

They all nodded, grinning back at her.

Macy leapt forward, wrapping one arm around Nick's neck, pulling him with her as she gathered everyone else in a group hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

They stayed in the hug for a few long seconds before Stella noticed something… off.

"_What_," she asked, pulling away and wrinkling her nose, "Is that smell?"

"Probably my breath," sighed Kevin, digging in his pocket for another Mentos, "Frankie's disgusting sundae included garlic, soy and pickle relish… there's a reason we called off the judging, _trust me_."

They all laughed, and while the others filled Macy in on the finer elements of touring, Nick turned his attention back to the camera he still held in his hand. He stopped the recording, but didn't make any move to delete the footage. Actually, as he thought about it, looking over at Macy's beaming face, he realized that he'd probably be keeping the camera on him for a while; it was definitely going to be a summer to remember.

a/n 2.0:

So, what do you all think? Does it have potential as a series of oneshots? Or should I leave it as a singular oneshot? Reviews tell me more than anything else! =)


	2. Morning Mayhem

a/n: Part two! This one is a little more rambling and its plot is a little plot-less, but I thought it was necessary in order to really set up the rest of the story. Thanks so much to all my awesome reviewers!!

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UnOfficially Keeping Them Sane

2 - Morning Mayhem

"And the fourth copy of the list of all the outfits Nick can wear in Paris is taped to the inside of the _purple_ trunk. That's the trunk with your designer accessories which I expect you to _use_ Macy, _especially_ on red carpet events. Speaking of, all the appropriate gowns and dresses for those are in the teal sparkly trunk… oh I wish it was here with us instead of already in the jet, and then we could go over the different event attires again, I just don't know if one lecture and the guidebook were enough! Macy, just call me if you're the least bit unsure, okay? Same goes for the boys, but you have the stella-vator for them… I should've configured that to work for you too! What was I thinking? ..."

Stella was talking a mile a minute as she paced back and force across Macy's bedroom floor. She'd been this way for about the past twenty-four hours, and Macy was tired of it. Since she knew that Stella had reached the point where she was just going to repeat things she'd already said, she decided - for the sake of sanity - to tune the blonde out for a while. It was six thirty in the morning and Stella had shown up at _four_ to go over a last minute list of craziness. Any other day Macy might have locked Stella in her closet and gotten a few more hours of sleep before letting her out, but thanks to her major excitement and nerves, there was no way she was going back to sleep after she was up. Besides, she knew it was best to let her friend get all the worry and anxiety out _now_ while Macy was still around to reassure her that she would be able to handle the boys for the length of the tour. Still… if she didn't do something soon then the blonde was sure to hurt herself.

"Stells!" Macy threw up both hands the second her friend paused for air, "Calm down!"

Stella opened her mouth to object, then, at the look on Macy's face, deflated, blowing out a huge gust of anxiety.

"I'm sorry Mace," she sighed, sitting down next to Macy at the end of the bed, "It's just, I've never been apart from the boys when they're on tour… _no one_ else has touched their clothing before now. And I'm sending _you_ off on your first fully-backstage tour _without_ me to calm you down and show you the ropes and… ugh, I'm a terrible friend."

Macy's eyebrows shot up, "You are _not_," she replied calmly, "a terrible friend. Quite the contrary Stella, _think_ about it. You're going off to do what you love so that you'll be better at your job. You're letting the boys go off and putting a little faith in them, and me. You're not being a complete crazy girlfriend to Joe even though you're fully aware that his job comes complete with a package of crazy screaming fan girls -- do _not_ comment on my status as one of them. _And_ you made sure that, even though _you_ can't go with them, _I_ won't be alone this summer after all."

Stella sniffled slightly beside her, and without looking, Macy pushed her tissue box back over towards her.

"Thanks Mace," Stella sighed, "But, it wasn't just me who pushed for you to go, you know? And I have zero faith in the boys, well, I mean, Nick is normally pretty good but he likes to go basic-basic, and Joe has his moments of genius, but also his moments of crazy, and Kevin… well… it depends on the day. I'm pretty much relying entirely on you for that."

Macy laughed, "Then thank goodness you're sending me with, what is it, seventy-two different photographic fashion diagrams per-boy per-county? I don't think one sock will be unstylish."

"They'd _better_ not be," Stella remarked, standing back up and moving across the room to grab the pink crate she had come in with, "I'll be expecting fully body pictures of each boy in each look he wears to all major events. And I'll expect an explanation if even one tie is outdated."

Happy that her friend had regained some state of normalcy, Macy eyed the pink crate she was dragging back towards the bed with hesitancy. She had noticed when Stella had brought it in, but had deemed it better not to ask. What else could she possibly need? All the clothing trunks were already loaded in the JONAS Jet, so that whenever the brothers (and Macy) got to the airport there would be zero delay. Really, all she had left with her was her bag of cards and books and a pair of pajama pants to wear on the plane - Stella had forbidden her to wear them anywhere a news camera might see, so from her house to the airport she was stuck in skinny jeans.

"What's in the crate?" Macy asked, adding quickly, "The boys are going to be here soon Stells, it better not be too labor intensive to explain!"

Stella shook her head, smiling slightly, "No, it's pretty basic, _this_," she gestured flamboyantly at the crate, "is the official Stella-Malone life-saving tour box."

Macy blinked, "It's a first aid kit?" she asked, confused. She was pretty certain the diagrams of the European and Asian Tour Buses had included first aid kits, and the JONAS Jet _definitely_ had one.

"No silly!" Stella replied, lightly flicking Macy's forehead, "Though it does have Band-Aids… in _three_ varieties; the traditional beige ones are for Nick and Mrs. Lucas, Transformers for Joe and Frankie, and then the ones with the rainforest animals on them are for Kevin and Mr. Lucas," she paused to take in Macy's blank stare, "they're all labeled in any case, and the boys know which ones are whose."

"Stella," Macy began, sifting through the crate, "Is this all really… necessary? I mean doesn't Joe have _enough_ hair utensils?" she asked, lifting up what looked to be a very pink cross between a curling iron and a straightener.

"That's not for Joe," Stella replied, rolling her eyes, "It's for _you_. There're also some tubes of lip-gloss and eyeliner that are also _not _for Joe. Trust me Mace', traveling with and growing up surrounded by these boys teaches one a thing or two on how to survive them at their worst… I wrote down all the tips I could think of in that pink notepad clipped to the side."

"Stella!" Macy cried, and reached over to hug her best friend, touched by the amount of effort she had obviously put into the box, "What are we going to do without you?!"

"Look fabulous, I hope!" Stella sniffled as she hugged Macy back. Their embrace was broken by the sounds of a doorbell below and Mrs. Misa opening the door. The pair exchanged a look and another hug before gathering up the rest of Macy's things, and the "life-saving" crate and moving downstairs.

Not ten minutes later, Macy was leaning on the side of the limo, trying to pointedly ignore the fact that Nick had had the camera out and filming since the moment she'd come downstairs, and that he was now obviously focusing it on her, trying to make her crack as Mr. Lucas loaded her things into the car.

Of course, it was early, so Macy didn't last very long.

"Nick!" she groaned, "Isn't there something, or _someone_ more interesting to shoot?"

"Nope," Nick replied, "You're the most interesting thing to me right now." His eyes widened slightly as he realized what he'd said, but luckily it seemed as if Macy was too tired to notice his slip.

"Who's idea was it to give you a camera again?" She mused aloud, patting her index finger against her chin, "Oh wait, you _stole_ it!" she answered herself, sticking her tongue out at the thief.

"Did not!" he responded automatically before realizing that she actually had a point… he had sort of stolen her camera, "Okay, well, it's not like it's not still spending time with you."

He couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Macy's face, even if laughing wasn't something he generally did this early in the morning. He half heard her mutter something about 'Lamest retort ever,' but given that she had no snappy comeback of her own, he decided to turn the camera lens onto someone else.

Joe was fortunate enough to come over from his goodbyes with Stella at that moment.

"You're up now for your goodbye with her," he told Macy gruffly, "we'll be in the car."

Macy nodded at him, and then, happy to flee the camera, went over to Stella. She had already said goodbye to her family, all that was left was her best friend.

"We're going to be fine Stells, and we're going to miss you so much it'll be ridiculous, like so ridiculous, in fact, I bet we call you every night. The boys are rock stars, they can so handle the long distance charges," she reassured her friend, hugging her tightly. Macy felt guilty leaving Stella like this. Just a few days ago _she_ had thought her world was ending because they were all leaving her, and now they were all leaving Stella…

"Thanks Mace," Stella sniffled slightly, "I know you'll take care of our boys… and you'd _better_ call every night. And keep an eye on my Joe?"

"Of course we will! And don't you worry about Joe, between me and the Frankster and Nick's newfound obsession with that camera, he'll be on his best behavior," Macy promised with a smile.

"Okay," Stella nodded, stepping back, "Just remember one last thing, no, really, this one is really important. _Finding Nemo saves lives_."

For a long second Macy blinked up at her before giving up trying to translate her advice into early-morning English.

"I'm sorry…?"

"It's the _only_ movie all four brothers like," Stella explained quickly, seeing that Mr. Lucas was waving at her to wrap things up, "Nick and Joe will pretend to be too cool for it if you suggest it, but if you just pop it in, well… five minutes and all four of them will stop whatever they're doing to watch. It's only good once or twice a tour, but it can seriously end an argument. Just make sure you have Kleenex on hand for the sad parts… Kevin loves animals. And Nick has a soft spot for Ellen Degeneres."

"Okay Stella," Macy nodded, hugging her best friend tightly, inwardly hoping there was a copy of the DVD in the pink crate, "Kick butt at that internship!" she cried, hopping into the limo, and with one last chorused goodbye from everyone, she shut the door.

They all waved at Stella as they drove away, Nick filming her form getting smaller and smaller until they turned a corner and saw her no more. He felt rather artsy with such a shot, but, given the glare Joe was shooting his way, he thought it best to put the camera away for a little bit.

"I see Stella passed on the box?" he commented, gesturing at the box perched precariously on the seat beside Macy.

"Yep," Macy replied, pulling herself out of her reverie, replacing the sort of vacant, sad expression with a huge smile. A huge smile that made Nick's heart feel all funny if he was being honest… he wished that he'd kept the camera on for that.

"What are you so beam-y about? It's so early." Kevin groaned from where he was sprawled across what was meant to be three seats, his shades covering up his eyes so, if he just happened to doze off during one of his father's many pep-talks, he could get away with it.

Macy cocked an eyebrow at Kevin, but didn't break her beam. The effect was a rather silly looking facial expression that made Frankie giggle to himself from his seat by the door.

"Kev', this is the same time we generally leave for school…" Joe pointed out, "It's not _that_ early."

"Says the boy who barely woke up five minutes before we left," retorted the oldest, "_Someone_ had to take the first shower… and make the breakfast."

"Mom made the breakfast!"

"Yeah, and guess who _didn't_? That'd be you oh brother of mine."

"Your logic makes no sense!" Joe cried, frustrated, throwing his hands in the air, banging his knuckles on the limo's roof.

"Watch the hands! Watch the hands!!" Mr. Lucas grabbed Joe's wrist, examining each finger, "You have _concerts_, you have performances, and I'm not panicking. Not panicking…"

"Remember to breathe honey," commented his wife, without looking up from her magazine.

As the chaos continued, Nick turned sideways to look at Macy, surprised to see her watching the mess calmly, huge grin still in tact.

"Why _are_ you so smiley?" he asked, honestly curious. A few minutes alone with his family was generally enough to drive anyone to frowning in his experience.

"Because," she answered, turning around in her seat, her smile, if possible widening even further, "This is really happening!!! I'm going on tour with JONAS!! And, even better, I'm going on tour with my completely awesome friends!! We're really doing this! This is going to be such a fun summer!"

Nick smiled at her bemusedly, wondering how long her enthusiasm could possibly last. Turning back to watch the mêlée before him, he decided that the forty-five minute car ride to the airport where the JONAS jet was docked would probably be enough to reduce her extreme enthusiasm down to a normal level of excitement.

It didn't take long for him to realize that he'd underestimated her awesomeness. Macy managed to end the fight between Joe and Kevin only seconds after he'd placed a time limit on her smile. He was impressed with her creativity, using her travel pack of Apples to Apples to distract the others from their anxieties and fights and exhaustion… well; he'd _known_ he was right to push his parents into letting her come.

The rest of the ride to the airport passed in miraculous peace. By the time the limo pulled up beside the screaming mass of fans lining the carpet that led to the plane, Macy's grin was still in tact, all four brothers were getting along _despite_ Frankie's complete dominance of the game, Mr. Lucas was breathing regularly and Mrs. Lucas looked like she wanted to adopt the petite brunette. Even Big Man was smiling, sort of.

"That's a lot of screaming girls," Macy noted, as they watched security push everyone back and Big Man carry their carry-on bags onto the Jet. She was suddenly very glad that Stella had insisted on the skinny jeans and lip gloss. From what she knew of Tween Weekly (which was to say, a lot), she knew that if she had shown up in her Horace Mantis PJ pants, she would've been the laughingstock of the week, easily number one on the 'Cruddiest Clothes' list, and her title of Assistant Stylist torn to shreds.

Joe examined the crowd with an experienced eye, "Eh, we've seen worse outside your thrift store. This actually isn't that bad for a departure party. It helps that you were keeping the time and place under wraps for us Mace."

"It really isn't that bad," Frankie agreed before turning to his father, "Daaaad, can we have the jackets now? Please?"

"Jackets?" asked Macy, confused, as Mr. Lucas pulled a cardboard box from beneath his seat.

"Tour jackets," explained Nick, "They're sort of like souvenirs for the personnel… like team sweatshirts, only with more detail and pizzazz. Stella designs them for each tour, so that they're all unique. We generally make a few extra and sell 'em for charity or something… They're all monogrammed so we won't mix them up, but I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

"Why not?" Macy asked automatically, eyes huge as Mr. Lucas tossed royal blue zip-ups across the limo. She saw that Frankie's had his name on the front in silver embroidery above the JONAS logo, but that the back said "Bonus JONAS" in big shiny letters. Nick's, Joe's and Kevin's all had "1/3 JONAS" on their backs.

"Because," Nick said calmly, catching the sweatshirt his dad threw across at them and handing it to Macy, "Stella's wanted to design a sweatshirt with rhinestones for _ages_."

"Oh dear…" Macy groaned, shaking out the shirt and staring in partial awe, partial horror at the sparkles. Her name was in normal script on the front, but the JONAS emblem was covered in the things, and when she flipped it around she saw that Stella had taken some liberties, writing "Assistant Stylist" in big letters formed from rhinestones, and beneath that, in smaller type she'd scripted the words "Unofficial Sane-Keeper" in silver thread. It was pretty, and perfect, and far too much. Macy loved it instantly. She slipped it on and zipped it all the way to the top, just as the others had done. She also noticed however, that they all had pulled out sunglasses… something she hadn't thought to keep on her. She was pretty sure there were a pair in Stella's magic box, but that was already on the plane.

Without a word, Nick passed her a pair of glasses. He smirked at her surprised expression and look of gratitude, deciding then not to tell her that he almost always kept a spare pair on him in situations like these, and deciding, after she put them on, that she _had_ to keep them as he had never looked so good in those frames as she did then.

"Ready?" Kevin asked, excited. He was _dying_ to get out of the car and give his legs some room.

"Uh, alright…" Macy smiled. She'd been on the red carpets before of course… well a handful of times. That time that JONAS took her to that club after the Fiona scandal for one. And there was that Mackenzie Falls season finale party back in the spring. She wasn't a pro, but she wasn't a complete stranger to the press… she just preferred to _be_ the press.

Luckily for Macy though, the walk from limo to plane was brisk. They didn't stop to pose for pictures, though of course the boys smiled and waved and high-fived the fans, but they didn't do the usual media montage. It only took a minute or two of smiling and waving and then they were up the stairs, into the plane.

Macy's first impression of the jet was that it was big. Of course, in her hardcore fangirlling days she had seen pictures of the infamous JONAS plane, but she'd never actually seen the inside before. It reminded her of the planes people made fun of on TV, with a pair of plush couches, a widescreen TV on the wall, and a complete RockBand gaming system set up in front of it. She could see through open doorways into what looked like a very classy bathroom and a bedroom lined with bunks. There was a mini fridge and small kitchenette next to the bathroom, and beside that a small table.

"Wow," was all she could get out. Of course, Nick had the camera out again, and was documenting her shock.

"And that, Ladies and Gents," Nick announced to the camera, "was Macy Misa, speechless at the sight of the awesomeness that comes with the rock star life."

She stepped on his foot in response. Normally she would've slapped his arm or fake punched his shoulder, but what with Mr. Lucas's obsession over preserving the hands of the bands, the foot seemed like the wisest option.

Take off was smooth and easy, and soon they were up in the air, officially on their way to London, the first stop in the world tour. Macy was so excited she was finding it difficult to sit still, so she was happy when the seatbelt light turned off and they were allowed to move away from the row of real-style seats at the front of the plane.

"I'm taking a nap," announced Mrs. Lucas, moving towards the bedroom, "I've been up since the wee hours, and now that we're on a plane, it doesn't seem likely that you boys will disappear on me."

"Alright Mom," Joe nodded, and as soon as she was out he turned to Kevin, "Rockband - infinite set list?"

"You know it bro!" Kevin responded, turning to glance over at Nick and Macy "You in Nick? Macy?"

Macy laughed, and flopped down on the cushy couch to watch, "No, you guys go ahead, let me know when you play something I'm good at… like soccer, or Dance Dance Revolution."

"Will do Sane-Keeper," Kevin nodded officially, "What about you little bro?"

Nick glanced between Macy and his well used drum kit, "You know, I think I'll sit this one out too… lets see if you two can actually manage without me."

"Oh, ho!" Joe cried, "I sense a challenge in that!"

"Challenged indeed Joseph, challenged indeed…" Kevin agreed, and they moved over to the television and were soon completely enveloped in their virtual world.

Nick meanwhile moved over and sat beside Macy on the couch, flicking off the camera and placing it carefully on the table beside them.

"You didn't have to ditch the game just so I won't be lonely you know," Macy told him, half scolding, half yawning - her early morning finally starting to take its toll, "I'm going to be alone quite a bit when you lot are doing JONAS-y things, and I don't mind it."

"I didn't ditch it so you wouldn't be lonely!" Nick protested, not entirely sure if he was lying or not, "I just… didn't feel like playing today."

"Oh?" she asked, snuggling deeper into the cushions, eyes drooping.

"Yes," he responded, smiling down at her sleepy face, even as he himself felt the pull of sleep.

Not fifteen minutes later, the proclaimed Bonus JONAS came strolling out of the cockpit where he had been acting as Junior Co-Pilot until it got boring. He examined the situation before him with a careful eye, Joe and Kevin deep in the throes of musical battles, and Nick and Macy… Frankie tilted his head to the left and squinted his eyes, but the scene didn't change. Nick and Macy were still both asleep on the couch, his arm draped around her shoulders, her head resting on his chest.

Frankie knew that if he was older, or a girl, or an older girl, he probably would have found the pair cute and adorable. As a nine year old boy though, he just felt confused. He spied the camera lying beside Nick's hand on the end table and snatched it up. It took him a few minutes to figure out the controls, but soon he was recording. He panned around the plane's interior for a while, playing with the zoom features and enjoying how he could change the colors in such a way that Joe's hair turned an alarming shade of violet, before he turned the lens on his desired subject. He shot a few seconds of their sleeping situation before turning the camera off and tucking it into his pocket. He scrawled a quick note on a napkin about the camera's new whereabouts and placed it carefully where the camera had been. He liked Macy and didn't want her to fret over her toys… and besides Nick had been a little too film happy, it was time to let a master spy play around with the equipment.

Smiling at his intrigue he opened the fridge and began the important search for a juice box. Sometime soon, when he was in the mood for a bunch of girl babble, he would show the video to Stella over web chat or email. She would surely give him more of a perspective on what it might mean.

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a/n: So let me know what you think! More to come as the weeks progress =). Reviews = love.


	3. Launching Lunacy

a/n: so sorry for the wait guys, it's been crazzzy lately. But soon it'll get less so… I hope. In any case, thanks so much for sticking with it, and I hope you like this chapter. It's a little patchy, mostly cause I've been planning the next one from the beginning and I just really want to write that one already =P

UnOfficially Keeping Them Sane

3 - Launching Lunacy

Macy had been to thirteen and a half JONAS concerts in her lifetime. Nine of which she had had backstage passes for, and six of which she had been invited to as a "FOJ" - Friend of JONAS. She technically had attended fourteen concerts, but Stella had told her she couldn't count the one in New York as a full concert, what with her fainting when Nick had thrown his hat into the crowd and she had caught it and all. All in all, Macy was used to the pre-concert hysteria that the masses of JONAS fans went through. She was even used to the crazy post-concert energy that the boys exhibited after their shows. What she _wasn't_ used to was running around backstage, a clipboard basically replacing her left hand, an earpiece keeping her in touch with the stage crew _and_ being in charge of three over-excited teenaged boys on the verge of launching the biggest tour of their lives.

Not, that she wasn't excited too, because Macy was the veritable definition of thrilled. She could feel the JONAS-concert mania flooding her veins and the very idea of getting to watch a real JONAS launch concert was too much for her mind to handle. She was excited, no doubt about it, completely and utterly thrilled for the tour to start, but, she was also growing increasingly likely to _murder_ at least a third of the band before show-time.

"Kevin!" she cried, for what felt like the thousandth time, "Stella said _no_. Go put on the shoes she picked out _now_ or, so help me, you won't live to go to the post-concert launch party."

Kevin's eyes widened somewhat at her tone, and, sensing that she meant business this time, he hurried back to his dressing room. Joe raised an eyebrow at her from where he was jumping up and down on the little trampoline he had requested for the green room.

"You'd never _really_ murder a third of JONAS, Misa," he commented, turning his hops into jumping jacks and giving her a knowing grin.

"Do you _really_ want to test that Joseph?" Macy asked, annoyed, she just wanted them to be ready and dressed so she could enjoy the concert in peace, "If so, go ahead; wear that leather jacket with the yellow pants to the party…"

"Fat chance," snickered Nick, who was mercifully behaving himself in the corner, spinning round and round in the bubble chair that hung from the ceiling, "Even if you didn't maim him for that, Stells _totally_ would."

Macy rolled her eyes but privately agreed; Stella had put far too much effort into the looks for the launch party to have one shoelace not match the diagrams. Personally, Macy was a bit vague on the details, but from what she gathered, this launch party would be a gathering of all of young Hollywood… or at least all of young Hollywood that didn't mind flying out to London.

"Are these the right shoes Macy?" Kevin asked somewhat timidly, returning to the room in a pair of shoes that exactly matched the pictures on Macy's clipboard. She smiled at the oldest JONAS and nodded, checking the outfit off her to-do list. Happy to see that all her assistant-stylist duties were, for the moment anyway, complete, she tossed the clipboard down onto the snack table and slid down into one of the cushy beanbag chairs that Frankie had demanded be available in all places he might be.

For a long moment Macy eyed her cohorts, carefully suppressing her own excitement for fear of throwing them off their game. They may have stayed that way for a while longer, with Joe jumping up and down on his trampoline, Kevin practicing some choreography and Nick lazily spinning in his chair, a book forgotten on his lap, but just as the group had descended into the level of silence that felt most comfortable, a voice sputtered to life in Macy's earpiece making her jump to her feet in surprise.

Nick was on his feet within seconds.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he demanded while his brothers raised eyebrows at his anxiety.

"Nothing," she muttered, flushed with embarrassment, tapping a finger against her ear and trying to listen to the broadcast, "stupid earpiece. Forgot it was in…"

"What's going down?" Kevin asked, checking the clock, "We have at least twenty more minutes before we have to get on the rig…"

"Yeah," Macy concurred after a second, the blush still prominent on her cheeks, "It's just that your opening act is going on now."

"Oh," Joe remarked, leaping off the trampoline and trying -and failing- to touch his toes before landing.

"Who _is_ our opening act?" Kevin asked, a puzzled expression crossing his face "Didn't the local band who was supposed to play fall off a bridge and turn into wallabies or something?"

"The lead singer got the flu," Macy answered absentmindedly, reaching over to flick on the monitor attached to the wall, after a few seconds of dizzyingly fuzzy lines, the picture cleared, showing the main stage. Macy knew that the television was there so that the backstage staff could watch the concert to check on the boys, but there was no reason she couldn't use it to check who the opening act was.

Frankie chose that moment to make his entrance, sliding into the room on the skateboard his mother had only slightly forbidden him to use backstage.

"Fifteen minutes till they want you on the rig, Dudes," he informed his brothers before noticing how all four of them were intently watching the empty stage.

"What's going on?" he asked, "Is there another wild raccoon loose onstage?"

"Wha--" Macy began, not entirely sure she wanted to know about wild raccoons loose in her environment, but Joe cut her off before she could get the full question out.

"We're trying to figure out who our opener is," he informed his youngest brother in a somewhat lofty tone.

"Oh, that's easy!" Frankie shook his head. If his brothers spent half as much time sneaking around as he did then they wouldn't have half as many stupid questions.

"Oh?" Nick raised an eyebrow, "Pray inform us little man."

"It's Sonny Monroe," Frankie gestured toward the TV where the girl in question had just come on stage, "She was in town anyway for your opening party, since So Random is doing a special episode shot over in Bristol. Dad called in a few favors - remember how excited he was after she sang that song? And bada-bing, bada-boom, you gots yourselves a new opening act!"

"Sweet!" Joe exclaimed, and with a renewed sense of energy leaped back onto his trampoline.

"Agreed," Nick nodded, but flicked the television off all the same - he didn't want Sonny's music to confuse him before the launch.

"So, Mace," Kevin turned to smile down at her, "You excited to watch your very first JONAS launch?"

"Am I ever!!!" she exclaimed, doing a fan-girl style jumping fit before remembering that she was supposed to be portraying a calm exterior.

"I mean," she quickly amended, "It's pretty cool…"

Nick shot her a clear I'm-not-buying-it look and even Joe rolled her eyes. Apparently Macy's history as a fan-girl had ruined any possibility of appearing normal in front of the Lucases. Rather than keeping up a pointless pretense, she decided to pose the question that had actually been bugging her for the past while.

"Where do _I_ watch you guys perform from?"

Kevin looked surprised by the question. Joe stopped bouncing to cock his head at her, while Nick became suddenly very intent on the bowl of cheese-doodles. It was Frankie, who had previously entertaining himself with the camera he had stolen from Nick, who answered her.

"You'd probably be back here with me and mom and dad, right Joe?" he asked, turning to check with the still-stationary Joe, spinning the camera upside down in his hands, enjoying the effect it presented which showed Joe standing on the ceiling.

"Uh… yeah, I guess so," Joe responded, stepping down off the trampoline, "At least, it sounds logical, right Kev'?"

"Definitely," Kevin nodded.

"Oh," Macy said quietly, trying to beat back the sinking feeling, it wasn't as if she wasn't going to see the JONAS launch concert. She was! Only, she wasn't going to see it in person really… or with the other fans… and she wasn't going to get the real JONAS concert experience. But she couldn't think like that! She couldn't! It was selfish and wrong and…

And Nick silently handed her a ticket for a front row seat in the VIP section.

She looked up at him with eyes that shown and he felt a shock course through him for a minute. He had known the ticket was a good idea, and silently promised to have more good ideas in future.

"Thank you," Macy near-whispered. She wasn't sure what it meant that he knew her as well as this, but she liked the way the electricity in her veins felt and the way her heart raced when he smiled like he did then, so she wasn't going to question it.

"No problem," he smiled a bit wider before continuing, "Just be sure to remember to bring your JONAS ID, or they won't let you come back to us… and we need you for the after party!"

"As if I'd risk letting Joe pick his own outfits without supervision!" she laughed in a tone that wasn't quite her usual cheeriness, playing off the moment as less than it was.

"BOYS!" a shout came from somewhere beyond the door, echoing into Macy's earpiece, making her wince. Not seconds later a frantic-looking Mr. Lucas came hurriedly into the room, trailed by several strained assistants.

"Boys, we need… Oh hi Macy! Boys, they need you on the rig now!" he explained quickly, flailing around his arms in what Macy was quickly recognizing to be his panic-mode.

"Aye aye Pops!" Kevin responded, "C'mon brothers, lets go make some music!"

As Mr. Lucas led the older two thirds out of the room, speaking rapidly to an assistant about gears and timing, Nick turned to Macy and Frankie.

"Frankie, can you show Macy to where she'd sit…? I managed to get you a seat too..." he asked, offering another ticket to Frankie.

"I don't have to watch it with Dad?! _Sweet!_" the youngster exclaimed with a fist-pump. He shoved the camera carelessly into his pocket, grabbed Macy by the wrist and towed her out the door.

"Good Luck!" she cried over her shoulder, jogging to keep up with Frankie. Nick waved farewell, then followed his brothers, trying to ignore the feeling that usually inspired a song that was burgeoning in his stomach. It simply wouldn't do to accidentally start composing in the middle of a _launch_ concert.

Meanwhile, the youngest Lucas led Macy around several bends, down a tightly winding staircase, then out through a tight crawl space into the audience.

"Do I _want_ to know how you know about that?" she asked spinning around to see if anyone had noticed their sudden appearance. Luckily, the closest concert-goers were all too attentive to Sonny Monroe's performance to notice.

"Nope," Frankie replied, studying his ticket, "Sweet! Nick got us seats in the VIP section…" He pulled Macy forward through aisle after aisle until he found their seats in the first row, stage-right.

"VIP?" she asked, surprised, she was a little used to getting nice seats from Stella or the boys, but mostly 'nice' meant being in the center section, or once it got her tenth row from the front on the left… _that_ had been an awesome concert.

"Yeah!" Frankie did a little fist-pump to show his excitement, and spinning around to examine the fellow VIPs with critical eyes, "We'll be in with all the high class celebrities and extremely high profile people. Look, there's Fiona Skye on the left. And Selena Gomez is over by the aisle… And there's Chad Dylan Cooper wearing a Sonny Monroe T-shirt! I wonder if he's coming to the after party… Stella would so cry if she missed that."

"So basically, if I jump up and down and act like my inner JONAS-head, you'll be mortified?" she asked with a smirk, amused by the boy's star struck face.

"…yes," he answered, looking at her with pleading eyes. Onstage Sonny took her final bows and scurried off, the lights dimming after her.

"Well then," Macy smiled, unzipping her JONAS staff sweatshirt to reveal her old "#1 JONAS FAN" t-shirt, "Prepare to be very embarrassed."

A single spotlight illuminated the stage, and while Macy heard Frankie mumble something along the lines of 'I'd have been better off with _Dad_," she ignored him. The concert was starting.

Macy had always been intense about her JONAS. Really, Macy's attitude tended towards intense about everything that she was really excited about. Like sports, and JONAS, and… well, yeah. This JONAS concert, a JONAS _launch_ concert was no different. It might've been a while since Macy had been a full-fledged crazy fan-girl, but she could still scream with the best of them, and as the boys were lowered onto the stage, that's exactly what she did. Beside her, Frankie sank lower in his seat, muttering about how now he'd _never_ get Selena Gomez's number.

She continued to ignore him. The boys were slowly placed down on the floor, their music washing the stadium's roof and audience with colors. For a moment she thought Nick was looking for something, craning his neck and twisting on his drum stool (all without missing a beat of course). Then she thought, maybe, that their eyes met. Of course it must have been impossible, with a crowd that large for him to see her and their eyes to catch, but all the same… she felt like they had. It didn't help her (crazy and completely illogical) theories, that Nick continued to play towards their side of the stage for the rest of the performance despite Frankie's confused insistence that Nick was supposed to be on the _other_ side of Joe. Macy didn't care, she was vaguely aware of the fact that, regardless of where he was onstage, he was the JONAS she'd be focusing on anyway… him being on their side just made it easier on her neck.

The concert was perfect of course, but far too short for Macy's tastes. It seemed as if the band had only just started when they were halfway through their second encore and Frankie was pulling her out of her seat and up the stadium stairs.

"If we leave now we'll beat the rush to huddle around the backstage doors," he explained as they hurried up stairs, around bends and out a double door exit, "We couldn't have gone back the way we came 'cause then my brothers might've seen and then… well I'd have been in trouble." They finished their run at the end of a long hallway, where Big Man waved them through the heavy medal doors.

"_How_," Macy demanded as she followed Frankie back to the green room, "Do you know this stadium so well?"

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies," the boy smirked, bowing her into the room but not following her across the threshold, "Have fun getting them ready for the after party!" and before she could demand more answers, or lies, Frankie had scurried off to destinations unknown.

Deciding not to act like an adult and chase him down, Macy walked into the room, tossing her sweatshirt across the settee and throwing her self into the beanbag. The room was blissfully empty, and the Television showed an empty stage. Mere seconds after she realized that that must mean the boys were on their way back to her, the door swung open with a crash, causing her to vault to her feet, and three giddy, sweaty JONASes tumbled in.

"Macy!!" Kevin cried, pulling her into a very Kevin-ish hug, "Did you see my power slide? Wasn't it epic?!"

Before she could answer (and lie) by telling him how awesome his move had been, Joe intervened, "Sorry to crush your dreams bro, but she was obviously completely focused on _my_ lead vocals at that point."

"Was not!" Kevin responded immediately, releasing Macy and turning to glare at his brother.

"Was too!" Joe answered in turn.

As their argument continued in the usual Lucas brother fashion, Macy turned to Nick, eager to tell _someone_ her thoughts on the concert.

"You guys were marvelous out there," she gushed, beaming wildly, the excitement she associated with a concert just finally leaking away.

"Thanks," he smiled, enjoying how happy the concert had made her, "but tweedle dee and tweedle dumb over there need to get their act together. We have a meet and greet now… and then the after party!"

"After party!!" Joe and Kevin cried in unison.

"They look forward to these after parties for months," Nick explained as the other two scrambled to un-mic and run combs through their hair, "I don't really get it, but whatever, they're my brothers, can't replace 'em."

Macy laughed, "C'mon, who doesn't love a party full of celebrities and fancy clothes… plus the food, all those tiny things that you're only allowed to take a few of or else look fat even though a few hardly fills you up at all…"

Nick winced a bit at that, "I forgot you're not a huge fan of the JONAS parties."

She shook her head, still beaming, "Nah, every once and a while they're fun, you just have to be in the right mood… and provided you three dress _appropriately_ and _quickly_," she raised her voice so Kevin and Joe would hear, "I'll be just fine."

"Nick, c'mon!!" Joe cried from the door.

"Fans await lil' bro!" Kevin's voice came from the hallway beyond.

"I'll lay out your after party clothes in your dressing rooms… and I'll see what monstrosity Stella wants me to wear and set myself up in the bathroom," Macy promised, leaning over to pick up her clipboard, trying to remember what dress was for the after party versus the Milan charity ball.

"You're the best!" Nick replied, and, acting impulsively he pulled her into a tight hug for barely a second before blushing and rushing to the door.

"I'll see you later!" he remembered to promise at the last second, poking his head back through the doorway.

"Okay…" Macy answered, a little dazed. She moved mechanically for a while, pulling out the boys' Stella-approved outfits and making sure they were all neat and obviously displayed in each dressing room. She lugged her teal and purple trunks into the bathroom, pulling out the short dress and matching shoes. Knowing that the boys would be a while, and in any case could probably manage putting on their clothes themselves she fussed around with her outfit and make-up for what felt like a long time before declaring herself satisfied.

She could hear the boys returning, but decided against going out to greet them. Instead she fished her phone out of the designer handbag she had just shoved it into, and did what any girl would do when alone and confused in a foreign country.

"Stella?" she breathed, hearing the other line pick up.

"Macy!!!" Stella sounded anxious and nervous and excited, like her usual self, "Oh my god, how long were you going to make me wait!? How _was_ the launch concert!? What did they wear?!"

"You know full well what they wore, you picked it out!" Macy smiled, knowing that the last question was Stella's real concern. JONAS could have sounded terrible at their launch concert, but, so long as they looked fashionable, Stella probably would have been fine with it.

Stella laughed, "I know, but I had to check that they didn't give you any trouble."

Macy decided not to go into her earlier issues with Joe and pants and Kevin and shoes, "No, no trouble at all."

"That's good. Where are my boys? Can I talk to him…? I mean them?" Stella asked almost wistfully.

"Joe's outside," Macy responded immediately, seeing through Stella's question at once, "But um, I kind of barricaded myself in the bathroom. And I think they're changing right now… and yeah…"

There was silence on the other end for a minute before Stella answered angrily, "_What _did they _do_?"

"Nothing!" Macy answered quickly, "Nothing at all! It's just…"

"Just…?" Stella pushed.

"Nick hugged me," Macy said quietly, "And there've been lots of little things today, and, ugh Stells, I wish you were here."

Stella was quiet for another long minute, but when she finally spoke she sounded like she was smiling.

"So you finally realized it?" she asked cryptically, and for a minute Macy wished that she could play dumb and not know what her best friend meant.

"No, I mean yes, I mean… ugh Stells. I've known about how I feel about him for ages and ages," Macy groaned. She hated thinking about her feelings for Nick; it was painful to know that they weren't likely to ever be returned.

"Really?" Stella asked skeptically, Macy could almost picture her filing her nails as she said it, and for some reason the image made her feel better, like she was sleeping over Stella's rather than barricaded in a bathroom in London.

"Remember Randolph?" Macy pointed out, wincing. Randolph was still a rather sore subject, a blot on her record as a generally nice girl.

"No Mace," Stella corrected kindly, "I don't mean how long have you had feelings for Nick of JONAS, but rather, how long have you had feelings for Nick Lucas."

"Oh," Macy paused, and then thought about it. Stella had a definite point.

"I think," she began, faltering a bit, "I realized how much I like Nick Lucas when I got over Nick of JONAS. See, Nick of JONAS is perfect, but he's not real, and by being perfect he's kind of boring. But Nick Lucas has flaws, he's not perfect, far from it really, but he's smart and funny and sweet…"

"And could feel the same way about you?" Stella offered kindly, but Macy shook her head.

"No, that's the one thing they both obviously have in common. They're both completely unobtainable," Macy insisted sadly, scuffing her sandaled feet across the pretty tiled floor.

"If you say so," Stella assented, doubt palpable in her voice, and perhaps she would have said more, tried to dissuade Macy of her insistent belief, but just then there came a knock at the bathroom door.

"Macy?" Joe's voice came through the wood, "Are you talking to yourself? Kevin says he can hear voices…"

"_I'm_ not the one trying to listen through the door trying to tell if she's talking to Joe or not," Kevin corrected quickly.

Macy laughed, straightening, the regularness of the squabble making her feel normal again. She could go out there and be Nick's best friend, act like their hug and everything else was just normal friendship things, she could do that.

"It _is_ Stella," she called back through the door, "But if one button is undone I won't let you talk to her"

Stella laughed over the line, "Joe wants to talk to me?" she asked.

Macy nodded as she shoved all her things back into her trunks, then remembered that Stella couldn't see her head and so said "Yes, he is, I'll give you to him now."

She could almost feel Stella's happy smile radiate through the phone as she gave herself another once-over in the mirror. She forced down the thoughts that the dress was too short, too red, too tight and that Stella had designed it to make her stand out, and instead focused on how cute her new shoes were.

"Mace," Stella commented quickly, as Macy tugged her trunks to the door and swung it open, "Just remember what I told you about me not being the only one who pushed for you to go on tour with the boys, 'kay?"

Before Macy could demand to know what _that_ meant, Joe had snatched the phone out of her hands and scampered off with it. Kevin quickly grabbed up her trunks and dragged them over to the unfortunate roadies whose job it was to tote the dress trunks to and from the arenas and busses.

Nick was watching her with wide eyes, inwardly trying to remember if he had ever seen her in that shade of red before. He would have to petition Stella to make that Macy's signature color.

"You look great," he managed to say, after a few long moments of openly gawping at her. Great. Now she definitely thought he was crazy. If the hug hadn't done it before, his staring now was surely doing the trick.

"You too," she smiled her normal 100 watt beam; "I quite like the color of your tie."

Nick looked down automatically and was surprised to see that his tie was the exact shade of Macy's dress… knowing Stella they were probably the same fabric. He had wondered why she had given each brother a different color tie to wear - it was so unlike her usually cohesive style, but now he could see the subtlety behind her scheming… he made a mental not to add a pay raise to that petition on the subject of Macy in red all the time.

"Thanks," he smiled back, "You ready to meet Selena Gomez?"

She laughed, "As if Frankie will let me near her… I think I might have embarrassed him a little out there tonight."

"A little?" Nick laughed too, "I saw you were wearing your old JONAS #1 fan girl t-shirt… nice touch."

"You saw me?" Macy sounded surprised, but not _that_ surprised. She _had_ thought that their eyes had met… may impossible things could happen after all?

"Yeah!" it was Kevin, not Nick who answered; he had just given the phone back to Joe after stealing it for a few minutes. He had wanted to answer Stella's latest hasty text voice to voice, and luckily Joe's hands were still slick from all that product he had put into his hair. He was surely going to pay for stealing some Stella-Joe time later, but for now he focused his attention on clarifying what he meant about spotting in the crowd.

"Well I mean," he amended, "Nick did. He actually made me switch sides of the stage with him when he saw you and Frankie were on my side… it kind of messed up my choreography a bit, but I still pulled off that power slide, you know?"

"Uh, yeah," Macy answered, suddenly feeling very awkward and confused, "I'm going to go… check and see if the limo is here yet. See you guys outside… I guess."

After she had left, Nick whirled around the face Kevin, "Thanks bro," he said a bit testily, "Really, just what I wanted."

"No problemo little bro," Kevin smiled, causing Nick to throw his hands up in disgust and march out of the room, presumably to follow Macy.

Kevin waited till he thought Nick was safely out of earshot before turning to yell, "Oy Joe, tell Stella I'm going to _enjoy_ this one."

a/n: So, what'd you think? Was it worth the wait? Reviews =)!

Oh and just a heads up, I know I mentioned the launch party a lot in this one, but really, I don't think I have enough plot for it to make it a real chapter… maybe I'll write up what I have and make it an extra, or maybe I'll just reference what happens at it all sneaky like in future chapters…

Coming soon - Rightfully angry Macy, more subtly sneaky Stella and Kevin, and probably more Frankie, cause he's kind of my favorite plot device =P


	4. Major MessUps

a/n: Okay, so I _did_ see the JONAS L.A. episode 1 leak… so don't hate me for being somewhat AU? Just hate me for being lazy and taking forever =P.

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UnOfficially Keeping Them Sane

4: Major Mess-Ups

Any normal person walking around backstage after the concert that night might not have thought there was anything weird going on in the Lucas brothers' greenroom. A stagehand might have dismissed their silence as some sort of post-concert ritual. A bystander might have taken their gloomy expressions to mean that the brothers hadn't done so well onstage that night, or that the Madrid crowd just hadn't been that great. Frankie would have known that something was off of course, his brothers _never_ sat silently on couches after concerts, but Frankie wasn't there that night. He and his mother were sitting on the tour bus, Frankie having just recovered from a rather violent stomach bug and claiming that cartoons had medicinal value.

So as the three Lucas brothers sat, in age order, on the long couch in their green room they were quite alone. The door was open, but no one stopped to stare or question. The silence grew so heavy that Nick was quite sure that, had he a knife, he would have been able to cut a slab of it away and store it in his pocket. Kevin had never been good at withstanding painful silences, so perhaps it was logical for him to be the one to break it.

"How much trouble do you think we're in?" he asked quietly, staring at the floor.

Joe shrugged noncommittally, not really wanting to think about it. All three _knew_ what a mess they'd gotten themselves into.

"Well, let's recap, shall we?" Nick remarked with heavy sarcasm, lifting his head from his hands for the first time since sitting down. Maybe on a better day he would have been a bit more patient with his brothers (okay so, probably not, but he would have at least pretended to try), but after everything he had done that day, he was miserable and hardly in the mood to put up with them.

"Yes, _let's_ recap Nicholas." Macy's voice was rarely as acidic as it was just then, her arms crossed tight across her chest as she marched into the room, eyes blazing but otherwise looking rather like someone who had just been run over by a herd of JONAS-heads while crossing the street. Nick looked at her for a few seconds, taking in her bedraggled yet furious appearance before swallowing a groan of misery and returning his face to his hands.

"Let's see, it all began, what was it, two hours from curtain? When _Joe_ managed to not only _ruin_ the outfit he was supposed to wear tonight but also managed to take out _all three_ of the replacement outfits Stella had so carefully designed for emergencies. Joe, care to comment on how you managed to pull that off?" Macy set her angry gaze on the middle brother. She didn't necessarily like being angry at the boys, but she was hurt and given the choice between raging and crying…

"No, not really," Joe replied quickly in a tiny squeaky voice. Stella had told him about Macy's angry face, and he'd seen her trash talk opponents when Nick had dragged him to her sporting events, but he had never been on the receiving end of it before. She was like the bunny from Monty Python (Joe's tour bus movie of choice); all cute and sweet looking one minute, then biting your head off the next.

"No, really, Joe. Please," Macy tapped her foot in a fast beat against the floor. It was not a request, or even a plea, it was an order.

"Well…" Joe looked sheepishly down at his hands, clasped neatly in his lap, "I'd heard about that whole Mentos and Coke theory, and someone had put Coke in my dressing room instead of Pepsi, and there was this box of mentos…" He trailed off, not meeting Macy's gaze. He was well aware of how stupid he sounded… but the explosion _had_ been epic, and providing Stella never, ever found out, it might even be considered worth Macy's rage.

Macy blinked at Joe, "You manage to ruin outfits in the most ridiculous ways…" she began trailing off before regaining her anger, "So, after you ruined all of Stella's hard, hard work, rather than you know, coming to your assistant stylist and begging for mercy and guidance - at least one of which I probably would have given, you three did something else. Nick, _what_ did you do then?"

Nick looked up again and saw that she was glaring him down. Her eyes were angry and violent, but also tearstained and hurt. He winced, knowing that even though all three of them were in serious trouble, that all three of them had caused the anger and the violence, he, personally, was the one who had caused the hurt and the tears. He couldn't say _how_ he knew that; maybe it was the way her eyes were staring at his, or the way her angry pout quivered slightly as their eyes met; but he knew it all the same.

He sighed heavily and focused his gaze on her feet rather than her eyes, "I told you that Joe had the stomach flu and was vomiting in his dressing room bathroom," he answered dully.

"Right," Macy nodded, uncrossing her arms to slap one hand to her hip and curl the other into a fist, "You _lied _to me."

"I mean," Nick looked up imploringly, "I was just… Macy…" he trailed off, her eyes not getting any less angry or lighter, if anything getting darker and glassier.

"You lied," she nodded quickly, then tossed her hair over her shoulder, trying to shake off the feeling that accompanied the memory of the first second in which she'd realized the truth. That horrible sickening, 'he must think I'm a fool' feeling that had preceded her anger.

"You lied," she repeated before moving her eyes to flicker between all three guilty faces, unable to focus on _his_ anymore, "So I believed that Joe was sick. Sick with only a few hours till the concert, too close to the start to cancel. And your mom wasn't here tonight you know. And your dad was cloistered in a closet somewhere on a conference call with the higher-ups in Paris. So it was just me and a dozen odd assistants back here, did you know that? And do you have any idea how hard it is to find Pepto-Bismol or any sort of stomach flu drug backstage two hours prior to the concert?"

They all shook their heads, never having needed any sort of medicine backstage before. Once Kevin had wanted a band-aid for accessory purposes, but that was hardly the same thing.

"And did you know that, despite being promised miracles from that stupid pink crate of Stella's, _she_ didn't see fit to put in anything of medicinal aside from band-aids, Midol and icy-hot packs!"

Joe almost mentioned how he had tried to convince Stella to put in some Advil when she had packed it last, but, looking at Macy's fisted hand, thought that the story that accompanied _that_ argument was probably better served at a later date.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," Macy was full tilt into her argument now, reliving each second as she told it, "So, what was I to do? Nick wouldn't let me in to see how Joe was faring. I know why now of course, but at the time, I though it was chivalrous and… sweet, so I didn't press the issue. Instead, I found the nearest staffer, Peter, you know, the cute British boy on your Dad's traveling team of personal assistants, and made him drive to the nearest pharmacy to buy every stomach aide in the aisle. Do you know what happened to Peter?"

Nick shook his head, he had quite liked Peter until he had heard Macy calling him a "dreamsicle" on the phone with Stella a day or two prior. After that, he kind of _hoped_ that something bad had happened to the boy.

"Peter got pulled over and ticketed for _speeding_," Macy snapped. She knew that being pulled over for speeding wasn't exactly a world ending catastrophe, but it was enough to make her angry. Poor Peter might be dull and boring, but boys with accents like his just don't deserve to get pulled over by the police when doing Americans a favor.

"Of course," she continued quietly, "I didn't know that then, I thought he was just running really late. So I went back to Joe's room, with maybe fifteen minutes to go, a platter of saltines in hand. And Nick, you were panicking, I know you were, you had your 'panic' face on, but you lied to me _again_ and told me Joe was feeling worlds better, but you still tried to keep me out. Why was that Kevin? What were you doing while I was running around backstage like a maniac, desperate to cure Joe of some illness he didn't even _have_?"

Kevin sighed inwardly; he hadn't realized what a mess this was turning into until it was too late. Stella was going to _kill_ him for more reasons than the obvious. Nick and Macy were _not_ supposed to fight… some secret agent of love he was turning out to be!

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" he offered, not really sure what else he could say.

Macy scoffed, her face even redder than it had been when she had first barged in, "Yeah, trying to make Joe wear _your_ clothes might have worked… if you weren't different sizes. And _cutting down_ your clothes with _scissors_ Kevin? That was a completely terrible idea and you know it. But I do owe you one thing. If it wasn't for your ridiculous inability to lie, I wouldn't have known until it was too late. Because you came running out to tell Nick that plan B was failing miserably and then saw me… well, because of that I realized that I'd been had."

Nick and Kevin both winced at the memory. Kevin because, up until that slip, he had thought that he might have (finally) outgrown the lying voice. Nick because of the way Macy had stopped talking when Kevin had shown up. The way her face had closed up when she silently pushed past him into Joe's dressing room. How she had gone white upon seeing the carnage but otherwise said nothing, not reacting to any of the boys instant apologies but merely walking quietly to Joe's big, seemingly empty London-through-Madrid clothing trunk and flipping a near invisible catch by the hangers, revealing a false bottom. From the hidden compartment she pulled out another outfit, complete with socks and shoes which she passed to the boy. The brothers hadn't known about the secret spot until then, as was Stella's intent when she had designed it. Stella knew of Joe's tendencies toward destruction and had provided for it… it was what she did best.

He remembered trying to catch Macy on her silent walk out of the green room, how she had stared at him with tear-filled eyes and told him in an icy voice that they would discuss this _after_ the concert, when they weren't "surrounded by a mob of JONAS heads who might take offense to the deaths of the band members."

In front of him now though, Macy didn't look murderous, but hurt. Her eyes were brimming over with tears that cut tracks down her cheeks as she stared at Nick, shaking her head from side to side as if she was confused over the whole thing.

"Macy, we're so-" Nick began, but she cut him off.

"I don't care. I can't hear that right now. I need you to do something for me," she un-fisted her hand and walked quickly over the snack table where she passed over the plates of nachos and cheese doodles to pick up Joe's cell phone which he had left balancing precariously on the edge of a bowl filled with caramel corn.

"Anything," Nick promised instantly, his brothers only a few beats behind him with their promises of "Of course," and "Whatever you want."

"You three," Macy smirked slightly as she scrolled through Joe's address book, selecting the number she wanted before handing it to the middle JONAS, "Are going to call her."

Joe blinked confusedly up at Macy before looking down at the phone. Then he gasped in horror.

"No! Macy, please. Please! I'll do anything! Shine your shoes, wash your clothes, do all you bus chores… let you beat me at guitar hero in front of fans, anything!" he begged, slipping from the couch to his knees in front of her, hands clasped in mock prayer. Kevin snaked a hand over to grab the phone from Joe's hand and, upon reading the number groaned in turn before tossing it over to Nick. Nick glanced down at the screen but wasn't really fazed; he was already living in a rather terrible nightmare, and this last addition really wasn't the end of _his_ world. Joe's world however…

"Yes," Macy nodded, gaining confidence, her hesitant smirk becoming more defined on her face, despite the tears that still lingered there, "_You_ will call her. And _you_ will tell her _everythin_g; do I make myself clear Joe? And I _will_ be calling her again tonight to check that you give her the whole truth and nothing _but_ the truth, so lie one little bit and you won't live to see Paris, got it?"

Joe whimpered slightly but nodded, "I guess I deserve this…" he sighed, and reached for the phone which Nick graciously passed over to him, his eyes on Macy.

She in turn nodded, and, aware of Nick's eyes on her back, spun around and left the room, pausing out of sight around the door frame long enough to hear Joe say "Hi Stella," in a weak voice before continuing on her way down the hall. She managed to make it all the way to the second girls' room on the right before she broke down, pulling her headset from her hair and banging her forehead repeatedly against the tiled wall. She knew, deep down that the boys hadn't meant to hurt her - that they'd just been doing their usual cover up act, but it stung that they didn't trust her. It infuriated her that she had run everywhere and worried so much all over a completely fake illness. And, _Nick_ had been the one to lie to her face… Macy wasn't sure what she was supposed to feel and wished she could call Stella to figure it out, but she knew that that would mean interrupting the very necessary conversation between Stella and Joe, so instead she set herself in for a good cry.

The after-concert midnight-pancake-snack that night was silent. Mrs. Lucas (who had traded off Frankie-watch with her husband) knew her sons pretty well for a mother of teens, and her own teenage years were not so far away that she could not recognize the red spottiness of Macy's face, so she wisely stayed silent. The rock star mom had seen her son and Macy's relationship up close over the past few weeks and didn't need to ask what had happened to make the meal so tense; she already knew.

So Mrs. Lucas didn't interrupt the silence as she shepherded the lot from restaurant to the tour bus. The brothers spoke aloud to Macy only to reclaim their bunks in the top floor's sleeping hall. Even those were rather unnecessary and abrupt conversations as the bunking arrangements had been relatively the same since the first concert. Macy liked the bunk closest to the lounge door, and Nick had just happened to decide that the bunk across from hers was where his vibe felt best. Kevin _had_ to sleep above Nick (as was the constant ritual since their first tour), and as Joe usually slept above Stella he'd been fine taking the bed above a girl. That left their parents, Big Rob and Frankie all to sleep on the other side of the stairs which suited the teenagers well enough.

Normally the brothers and Macy would spend an hour or two playing Monopoly or Scrabble in the lounge by their beds before turning in, but, as Macy wasn't talking to the boys anymore than she absolutely had to, it seemed implied that such shenanigans would not be going on that night. Instead, Joe and Kevin pleaded exhaustion as soon as their pajamas were on. Nick was intent on calling their bluff and demanding a brotherhood conference, but the two must have been telling the truth as, within seconds of climbing into their bunks, he could hear Joe and Kevin's snores mixing together to form a sound that didn't sound very much like music. For a moment Nick stared across the aisle at Macy's drawn curtain, debating knocking and apologizing and begging… but then he pulled his own curtain shut and plugged in his iPod's ear-buds.

Nick lay like that for what felt like hours and hours, staring at the ceiling of his bunk, wishing he could just magically make Macy forgive him. And, if he managed to get Stella back on his good side too, that wouldn't be a bad thing either. He ran through lists of things he could buy or say or do as the minutes trickled by. Stella was easy, he decided after a while, all she would need to forgive him was a new handbag or scarf or something. Macy however was impossible to shop for, and he felt that maybe buying her presents was kind of like bribing her to forgive him, and that wasn't his intent. He just wanted to show her how terrible he felt, how much he was willing to do to make it up to her.

He was just deciding between either 'a,' hiring a blimp to blast any number of the Macy-inspired songs that were currently swimming in his mind outside any number of the publicity events they were supposed to make an appearance at in Paris the following week or 'b,' dedicating every show to her until the end of tour, when Nick heard a muffled thump, followed by some footsteps and the sound of an opening door right by his head. He pulled back his curtain just in time to see the lounge door swinging shut. For a moment he wondered who could possibly be sneaking in some lounge time at three AM before noticing that Macy's curtain was wide open and bunk was empty.

It only took Nick three seconds to decide that this was the perfect opportunity to apologize, but more like three minutes to find both of his socks and the courage to creep over to the door. He almost knocked, before remembering that his parents had had the room soundproofed at the start of tour so they wouldn't have to listen to giggling teens late into the night. Instead he took a deep breath, pushed the door open, and slipped inside.

The lounge was easily Nick's favorite place in the bus. Three of the walls were full windows, looking out onto the road ahead, and the fourth was covered with pictures and memorabilia from past concerts and events from the tour. Kevin liked to call it a metaphorical place, with the past behind them and the open road ahead and Nick completely agreed.

Macy was sitting on his left, her laptop open on her lap and her ear-buds snaking from the computer to her ears. She had her feet propped up on the couch across from her, her bunny slippers making conversation on the floor. For a moment Nick thought she hadn't noticed him and so he stood awkwardly in front of the closed door, watching her. Then it dawned on him that she was probably still angry at him and therefore probably ignoring his presence. He sighed loudly and then sat down next to her, swinging his feet up beside hers on the other couch. He chanced a quick glance at Macy's computer and was taken aback to see his own face looking back at him.

"You're watching Camp Rock!" He asked her in surprise - Nick hadn't realized Macy had brought the DVD with her.

"Camp Rock _Two_ actually," she responded without looking up from the screen. It hadn't been her first choice of a feel good movie, but Stella had wanted her to watch it, and so long as she fast forwarded through all of Nick's scenes with _that girl_, it wasn't _too_ painful.

"But… why?" Nick asked, he would've thought that, after the chaos that afternoon, a JONAS movie would have been the last thing Macy would want to watch.

She sighed, clicked the pause button, pulled out her ear-buds and turned to look at Nick with those hurt eyes again. He squirmed a little in his seat, hating the deadened pain.

"I've found that I like Nate a lot more than I like Nick right now," she answered him, challenging him with her eyes. Nick wondered momentarily if it was healthy to be jealous of one's self, even if that self was actually pretending to be someone else.

"Macy," he began, "I'm so, so sorry…"

She sighed again; she knew he was, she could tell with that he wished he could take it back and that he regretted lying. Sometimes Macy hated how well she knew her boys, it made it so much harder to stay angry with them, and it was much easier to be angry than to be hurt.

"I _know_ you are," she admitted after a long moment, "But I still feel… sad."

"Sad?" Nick asked, not really sure what else to say.

"You lied to me," she explained carefully, "you played me for a fool."

"Macy…"

"But that's not all," she barreled on, "You didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth. That stung Nick. Not only did you trick me, but you did it so coldly…"

Nick's heart twisted nastily, and rather than beating around the bush or coming up with some lame excuse he decided just to say what he thought for once since lying had obviously not worked out in his favor lately.

"Mace," he said quietly, "I didn't play you for a fool… I lied so you wouldn't think _I_ was a fool."

"And that worked out _so_ well for you," she nodded sarcastically.

"No, seriously, I mean, yeah it was Joe who was an idiot today, but… I don't know, I didn't want you to judge me based on his actions I guess," he tried to explain. It was hard to put into words what had gone through his mind earlier. He had been so terrified that Macy would think less of him because of his brother's idiocy that he'd… panicked.

To his surprise, Macy laughed.

"Nick, I've known your brothers and you for quite some time now… if I was going to judge you for being an idiot, or for them being idiots, it would have happened a while ago," she giggled as she smiled a real smile for the first time in hours. It was as if the world had suddenly righted itself, the faded grey photographs on the back wall suddenly reclaiming the color Nick hadn't noticed was missing. The couch regained its usual level of squishy comfort and the ambiance lost that unbearably cutting feeling. He hadn't noticed how messed up the world had become without a happy Macy in it, but now that he could tell the difference he added 'keeping Macy happy' to his personal list of lifetime goals.

"I know… so will you forgive me for being an idiot again?" he asked, attempting to keep the mood light, but really kind of wanting an answer.

Macy bit her lip, really considering the question. She knew in her heart that she was over being mad at Nick, but she wasn't too sure that she was over being hurt. And she selfishly sort of liked the power she held over him when he was begging for forgiveness. But Macy knew that Stella was probably going to milk this latest joe-tastrophe (the blonde's colloquial term for anything involving clothes, damage and Joe) for all she could when she and Joe were in the same city again and, as much as Macy loved her friend, she didn't really want to be _that_ high maintenance.

"Oh alright," she succumbed, settling deeper into the couch and resting her head on Nick's shoulder without really thinking about it, "But you owe me. Big time."

"Of course," Nick responded immediately, "We were already informed that Stella will be collecting her debt in flesh and blood. Mostly Joe's I think, but she might ask Kev' and I to donate a finger each or something…"

It was then that he noticed her head on his shoulder and his heart skipped a beat, causing him to miss Macy's giggle and to nearly miss her next statements.

"If Joe or Kevin ask, I'm still mad," Macy smirked, then, noticing the confused look on Nick's face, elaborated, "It's an old trick of Stella's, she told me that the boys tend to behave better when they're still afraid of me. We still have to make it through that fashion show in Paris next week, the longer I can keep them on best behavior, well, the easier it will be to keep the right clothes on the right people."

"We have a fashion show in Paris?" Nick asked, feeling like this was something he had heard and discarded as meaningless publicity earlier in the planning process but which now was lighting up a glimmer of a beautiful idea.

Macy blinked at him, "Yeah… it's fashion week remember? Three weeks into the tour we hit up Paris so you lot can show at fashion week? You're normally much more on the ball with this Nick… it's the charity show for the Haiti victims?"

"Oh… yeah…" He obviously wasn't really listening, which probably wasn't the best way to handle things after _just_ having received forgiveness, but Macy just rolled her eyes figuring that he must be thinking about something unrelated to designer dresses.

Ironically, she was wrong. Nick's glimmer of an idea was fast transforming into a full fledged wildfire in his mind.

Spotting a lost cause Macy yawned loudly, "I think I might go to bed…"

"Alright," Nick nodded up at her, smiling absentmindedly, "but could you leave your laptop with me? I kind of want to look into that fashion show some more."

Macy raised an eyebrow at him, trying and failing to remember any previous interest Nick had had in fashion. He didn't answer her eyebrow with anything more than a cherubic smile though, so Macy shrugged, passed her laptop over and stood.

"Just don't break it Lucas," she said mock-threateningly.

"As if," he responded immediately, exing out of Camp Rock 2 and opening the web.

Macy watched him for a long moment as he stared intently at the computer before acting on a deep impulse.

She placed one hand tentatively on his shoulder, leaned over and brushed her lips against his cheek.

"Goodnight," she whispered, and then, she fled. Not that Macy considered it running away or anything, she was just walking very quickly in the opposite direction.

Once in the hall, Macy crawled into her bunk and whacked her palm against her forehead a few times, chiding herself for acting so impulsively. She wished Stella was with her, if only so she could help her analyze the blank look on Nick's face that she had left behind.

Back in the lounge Nick sat in silence for a long moment, his fingertips tracing over and over the spot where Macy had kissed him. He might have sat like that for hours, wondering how long the makeup artists would allow him to get away without washing that spot if not for the chirping noise that startled him out of his reverie. The search engine he had opened had found what he was looking for. Nick mentally shrugged off the dumbstruck emotions he had succumbed to, promising himself that he would look at them more carefully later, _after_ he had made up for his idiocy to both Stella and Macy… after Paris.

* * *

a/n: Thoughts?. I'm so sorry it took so long to put this up. I'd promise speed in future updates, but I don't want to be a liar if I don't come through =P


	5. Practically Perfect

a/n: Thanks to Vanillastar, Wyszlo, and all my other excellent reviewers for reminding me that you people really do want to keep reading this =P.

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UnOfficially Keeping Them Sane

5 - Practically Perfect

It wouldn't necessarily be wrong to assume that Macy Misa was easily excited. Really, the fact that she was basically hanging out of the limo window to gape and giggle at the Parisian sites surprised no one. It was normal. The fact that Nick Lucas did not grumble and tug her back inside however, was surprising. The fact that he instead had one arm wrapped loosely around her waist (only to make sure she didn't fall out of the limo of course) and was positively _smiling_ at the girl's antics was, in Frankie's expert opinion, bizarre. Frankie was videotaping Paris for Stella who, despite having been on all the tours before had, thanks to several… incidents, never actually made it to Paris. She was therefore extremely envious and had promised Frankie that she would 'accidentally' ruin that horrid sweater Grandma Lucas insisted he wear all the time. All Frankie had to do was video tape every second of Paris. Frankie had decided not to tell Stella that this wouldn't be difficult as he was rather addicted to the small video camera he had swiped from Nick who had swiped it from Macy. Really, Stella's request just meant that he had to be careful not to video tape anything too crazy or disgusting in Paris and spend a lot more time focusing the lens on Joe (which was hardly helping his older brother's ego).

"Frankie," the middle JONAS smirked, "I'm ready for my close-up! Stop video taping Nick and Macy being all cute and pay attention to me! I want Stells to see me at my best!"

This remark caused Nick to flush red, release Macy's waist and scoot down the seat. Macy, who, despite being completely awestruck by the Eiffel Tower, was not oblivious to the goings on inside the limo, pushed herself backwards, flopping back into her seat, carefully averting Nick's eyes. The two had been acting… odd, Frankie thought, ever since that mysterious fight they had had back in Madrid. He couldn't put his finger on why though, and Kevin had been no help in the diagnosis, claiming that Frankie was working on a need-to-know basis and should therefore stick to stalking the pair as much as possible.

"Seriously Frankie," Joe persisted, "Look, Macy is back inside the limo, nothing interesting over there! Look! I can do funny things with my hands!"

"Watch the hands!" came Tom's cry from the other side of the limo where he was checking over some last minute reports, "Concert tonight after the benefit fashion show!"

"Yes dad," all three boys muttered, putting on fronts of perfect innocence until their father returned his attention to his paperwork. Then Kevin whirled on Joe.

"Dude!" he whisper-shouted at his younger brother, "You are a horrible sidekick!"

Frankie, who got the hidden message was affronted, "I thought _I_ was your sidekick! I'm much more secret agent-y then Joe!"

Macy giggled, "I don't what you guys are talking about, don't think I want to either… but I have to agree, Joe would be a terrible secret agent."

Nick nodded, "Could you imagine? He'd totally be doing excessive tuck-and-rolls _everywhere_."

"And spilling things on his white tuxedo!" Kevin added, getting in on the Joe-bashing.

"Don't even _joke_ about spilling things on _anything_," Macy focused her eyes on Joe who shrunk down a little in his seat. Ever since Madrid the brothers really had been very well behaved around Macy, but Joe still wasn't sure if she was past her anger.

"White tuxedo?" asked Frankie, confused, last time he could remember Stella was still refusing to let the boys wear any color tuxedo other than black.

"All spies have white tuxedoes," explained Macy, "It's a part of the spy legend."

"So basically," Frankie said slowly, "If I see a guy in a white tuxedo at an event where most people are in black tuxedoes, he's a spy?"

Nick and Macy exchanged a quick 'isn't he cute' look before Nick answered, "Probably little man."

Frankie mentally filed this information under 'ways to get out of trouble for attacking random strangers' and turned his camera on Joe. It wasn't so much for Joe or Stella's benefit as it was for Nick and Macy, who, as soon as the limo's attention was focused on Joe's attempts at reciting Shakespearean sonnets at the camera, relaxed.

"So," Macy turned to Nick, "You ready for the benefit fashion show? Lots of cameras!"

Nick smirked, fighting down an even bigger smile, "Well I'm certainly dressed for them! But Mace," he knew it was impractical and might ruin the surprise just a little, but he couldn't resist asking, "Do you happen to have a final list of the designers we'll be seeing?"

Macy blinked at him; his interest in this show was really starting to unnerve her, "Er, No? Weren't you looking into it when we were on the bus from Madrid?"

"Yeah," he nodded before smiling cheekily, "But I kind of want to know if it's going to be swimsuits or winter clothes, you know, to know if I should pay attention."

Macy whacked him with her purse. She would have whacked harder, or maybe even flicked some of her orange soda at him, but his outfit was pristine and she could see the red carpet fast approaching. It wouldn't do for the assistant stylist to mess up the outfit… or for the unofficial sane-keeper to send Papa JONAS into a spiral of panic. Thinking about Nick's outfit made Macy remember her own.

"Oh great…" she grimaced, noting that her jaunt out the window hadn't exactly agreed with her dress. It wasn't stained, but it was decidedly wrinkled. She reached shuffled through her clutch but remembered that the portable iron just hadn't _fit_ in the designer handbag that barely held a stick of gum and a cellphone. Stupid Stella and her stupid insistence that the bags were what made the outfits dazzling/

"What?" Nick asked.

"My dress is wrinkled…" she groaned, "I mean, it's not like the cameras will be focused on me anyway, but there's bound to be that one shot of me getting out of the limo with the caption '_who_ is this slob JONAS is palling around with?' Ugh!"

"I don't know Macy…" Kevin interjected thoughtfully.

"Kevin," Macy shook her head, "I _work_ for you as a site manager half the time, I _know_ how the media works."

Nick shook his head, seeing where Kevin was going, "I think he more of means that the magazines _have_ been commenting on the totally awesome girl palling around with JONAS lately… you might have a reason to fear those cameras."

"Exactly right Nick!" Kevin grinned, glad his brother was not completely changed - he needed a reliable sane person in the group.

"The wrinkles aren't _that_ bad," Frankie piped up, "I mean, you don't have any mud on your dress, and isn't the whole point of a fashion show to look at _other_ people's clothing."

Normally Nick would completely have agreed with his little brother, but, given his grand plan… wait. Suddenly Macy's unfortunate wrinkle played perfectly into his plan, in fact, it made the plan even better. Nick had newfound appreciation for easy-wrinkling fabrics.

"Mace, we're going to a _fashion_ show, I'm sure we can nip backstage and get someone to iron your dress or whatever," he reassured her, "Then at least all the after and during shots will be wrinkle free!"

Kevin raised a mental eyebrow at Nick's promise, not really sure what was going on there, but decided to ignore it and instead put in his secret agent of love deed for the day.

"Nick's totally right Macy," he smiled, "And if I learned anything from Stella's many, many rants, it is that a good accessory can save any outfit."

"That's not wha-" Joe began but Frankie, doing his sidekick agent act slapped a hand over the older boy's mouth. Luckily neither Nick nor Macy noticed.

"This is partially true," Macy nodded, "But I don't see any classy handbags or shoes back here…"

Kevin felt the limo stop and mentally took note to send a 'HA!' note to Stella that night - his timing was perfect, obviously that was a credit to his lucky boot.

"I don't know Macy," he smirked as he moved to climb out of the limo first - it was the JONAS way to leave in age order, "I think Nick might substitute nicely for a Prada bag…"

When he glanced back after both he and Joe were halfway across the carpet and spied Macy on Nick's arm, both smiling rather widely at a thousand flashbulbs, all wrinkles seemingly forgotten, Kevin did a little air punch. Perhaps he wasn't so terrible at being a secret love agent after all.

Macy thought that Kevin's statement had been a little un-Kevin-ish, but, given that it gave her reason to cling to Nick's arm free of guilt she decided not to question it. Instead, she smiled for the cameras and let her arm candy lead her through a sea of photographers towards the double doors.

"All right!" Nick said as soon as they slipped into the quietly murmuring, reporter-free lobby, "Let's go find the way backstage!"

For a moment Macy was confused, in the crazy lights of the outside world she had quite forgotten her wrinkles.

"Oh," she said, looking down, "I don't think my wrinkles are _that_ bad Nick, really, we can just go socialize with the higher-ups if you'd rather…"

"No!" Nick was excited, his plan was going to work, and this unplanned jaunt backstage was going to kick it off perfectly, "Really, it'll only take a few moments. Besides can you imagine Stella's reaction if she sees a _wrinkled _dress in paparazzi photos of you?" He made to move towards the side doors that he thought probably led backstage but stopped when he saw that Macy wasn't following him. She was instead standing stock-still, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

"What?" he asked hesitantly.

"Tell me the _real_ reason why you want to go backstage," Macy demanded in her scary, not-shouting voice.

"What do you mean?" Nick couldn't just _tell_ her the truth - that would ruin the surprise!

"Nicholas Lucas! I happen to know that you happen to know that there are six highly famous, highly idolized singers and songwriters in this very room, two of whom are hanging in poster form in your bedroom. And you expect me to believe that you would rather take me backstage to find an iron than schmooze it up with your idols?"

"Um…" Nick blinked, for a second he debated _not_ insisting on the backstage drop by, but then realized something beautiful. He didn't have to _lie_ to Macy, she might kill him if he did and he could just play with his words instead - much less risky.

Macy watched the boy fumble for an excuse and felt her heart sink a little. She had hoped her demands would turn this little interaction into something out of a movie. She had hoped he would admit that he wanted to take her backstage so he could kiss her or… well, anything but what he said next.

"There's… well… there's this girl I want to visit."

"Oh?"

For a second Nick saw Macy's face flash with pain before it took on the politely interested mask she wore when listening to Stella rant about Joe or Joe rant about Stella. Only then did he realize how his words must have sounded, what she must have thought he meant. _Smooth Lucas_, he grimaced, _really, really smooth_.

"Yeah, she's err… pretty special?" Macy's mask grew harder, and Nick mentally kicked himself again.

"Oh," Macy wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond to that, this was _not_ her perfect movie scene, "Well… go ahead and visit. I'll just…"

"No! You have to come with me, I mean, please Macy I need you to come…" Nick looked so helpless that Macy felt herself giving in. Despite the fact that all she wanted to do was find a nice ladies room and cry for the half an hour they had left before the show, she nodded at the heartbreaker and let him lead her through the throng.

Nick wasn't quite sure where he was going but he knew he had to get there fast. The sooner he got Macy to the right spot, the sooner she'd realize that this mystery girl wasn't actually a girl. Well, wait… Nick shook his head, he just wasn't very good at not sounding stupid lately. A part of him blamed Macy for his inability to use words but the more rational part insisted that it wasn't _Macy's_ fault that his brain got all cloudy around her.

She followed him without question as they blurred past tent after tent. Macy had read lists of designer's names in the quick research she had done into the benefit the previous week but yet each designer name card came as a shock. She was really going to see a real Dior show? And Louis Vuitton? The girl in her would have squealed in delight at the thought of all those shoes had she not been so busy trying to tape her heart back together. Nick had a girl and he hadn't mentioned her to Macy. Macy had kissed his cheek and he had a girl. She had kissed another girl's boy. He had a girl and he hadn't _mentioned_ her.

"Here we are!" the stupid, heart twisting, musical delinquent gestured, grabbing her hand (stupid) and tugging her into the next tent.

Macy only had a split second to glimpse the designer's name on the wall card, but it sent a flash of recognition running through her.

"Nick, isn't this…" but her voice trailed off in surprise. The inside of the tent was covered in skirts and shirts and varied shades of purple. There were models _everywhere_ and people dressed in solid black raced around holding shoes or hair extensions. One woman chased a model who was presumably refusing to let her iron her skirt. Silk flower petals and bits of thread coated the floor. And, in the center of it all, standing on a milk crate, with a clipboard in one hand and cloth measuring tape that she wielded like a whip in the other, was

"STELLA!" Macy tackled the blonde, hearing Nick's laughter in the background as they knocked over two attendants and a rack of periwinkle mini-dresses in their excitement.

"Macy!" Stella looked as surprised as Macy felt.

"How did you…?"

"Why are you…?"

Nick smiled to himself as the two babbled frantically. He heard Stella explaining how her designer had mysteriously been a last minute addition to the show and how she had been sent as his envoy to make it all run smoothly. How she hadn't even thought that it might be the same benefit show as the one JONAS was attending… He let them go on for a while as he helped the crew reassemble the fallen clothing rack. Only after he was quite sure he had undone all the damage Macy and Stella had caused did he insert himself into their conversation.

"Sorry to break this up," he began but Stella who had previously been unaware of his presence yelped and hugged him, cutting off his air supply. Luckily the very amused Macy on her left seemed to get where he was going.

"Yeah Stells, we'd probably best be taking our seats now… but! We have a few hours before their concert that we simply must spend with you… I have a feeling that if I let it slip to a certain JONAS that _I_ got to see you and he _didn't_… well you'd be down one best friend," she smiled.

"Okay," Stella nodded and released Nick's throat, "I probably should be getting back to work anyway. Hm… do me a favor and _don't_ tell Joe you saw me?" She had that wicked Stella-smile on her face that made Nick's sensible self cower slightly.

"Okay!" Macy smiled with almost equal evilness, "How are you going to surprise him this time?"

"If I guess correct," Nick smiled, "It has something to do with Stella announcing this new line today?"

Stella just laughed, "It might Nicholas… you may want to warn Kevin and your parents?" Nick and Macy nodded and, with a final farewell, left the tent to the sounds of Stella shouting about purple stilettos not going with floral aprons.

The pair walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Macy still glowing with happiness at having seen her friend and Nick still glowing because Macy was glowing, before Macy turned on him.

"You knew." It wasn't an accusation so much as a statement of fact.

"Yeah," he nodded, "I… well I'm the reason her designer is here. After Madrid, when you said I owed you one… I made a few calls. I know how much you miss her. Don't tell Stella, but I was going to ask her designer to send her as an envoy rather than just leave it to chance, but when I called his office his secretary said that there was no way he'd send anyone else. He apparently can't even put on his socks without her anymore, she's _that_ good."

Macy beamed, "That's our Stella!"

"I know, I hope she doesn't quit working for us now that she's made a name for herself up in the big leagues…" he smiled, half-joking.

"Quit working with Joe?" Macy snorted, "Fat chance. She'd never take the risk that you'd get a new girl stylist for him to fall in love with… And speaking of girl stylists," Macy punched him in the arm, hard.

"Ow! Mace! What was _that_ for?" he demanded, rubbing his arm.

"For making me think you had a girl in the wings," she answered simply, walking ahead of him and pushing out the doors that led back into the lobby. For a long moment Nick looked after her, touching his arm where she'd hit him and thinking that, however painful her punches might be, jealous-Macy was pretty cute.

Nick slipped into his seat in the front row in time to hear Joe ask Macy why, after spending _so_ much time backstage looking for an iron with his 'innocent little brother' her dress was in fact more wrinkled than ever. It wouldn't have been so awkward if Joe wasn't so proficient at air quotes.

Luckily, the show began before Joe could challenge Macy's airy reply of "Do you _know_ how crazy it is back there Joseph?" Maybe it was because Nick was a boy, but he found the whole thing rather boring. Sure the girls were pretty, the clothes colorful and crazy and all that, but… he didn't really feel all that intrigued by the sequins and headdresses… he entertained himself for the first few shows by picturing Macy in each of the crazy ensembles, most of which looked so ridiculous that he chuckled to himself out loud. But then the outfits got tighter and shorter, and picturing Macy in them just wasn't a good idea for his sanity. Instead, he sent Kevin a text message about the Stella-surprise in an attempt to distract his mind from the pictures forming there. The brothers might have continued to text back and forth, perhaps even taken bets on the likelihood of Joe managing to not make a fool of his self when Stella showed up, but Macy was giving them both death-glares, so the phones disappeared.

To Macy the highlight of the show was of course the emergence of her blonde best friend from the black silk curtain. She would later insist that this favoritism had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the way Joe spat his mouthful of iced tea all over the runway. Or how security insisted on delaying the show until the janitors mopped up the spill to prevent any stiletto-slipping injuries. She would protest that it didn't have any connection to how Joe's red face was shown on the overhead screens for the duration of the delay (because she was _definitely_ over that little squabble in Madrid and didn't see _any_ reason for him to suffer at _all_), or how the entire tent had burst into laughter when Frankie's perfectly delivered "You _seriously_ didn't know your girlfriend was going to be here?" was picked up by the camera's microphone and thus broadcasted throughout the arena.

No, she would assure Joe that really, her enjoyment of Stella's show had had nothing at all to do with his embarrassment. What she didn't tell him, or anyone, was that it might have had a lot to do with the fact that, while the whole audience stared at Joe, Nick had grabbed her hand and hadn't let it go till Stella's last model disappeared behind the curtain. Stella's show was both unfortunately and fortunately, the last of the afternoon.

"Now what?" asked Macy with a smile at Joe's dumbstruck face as the group left through the lobby.

"More pictures," Kevin sighed woefully.

"But…" Joe stared backwards at the doors that led to the arena, "Stella…"

"Is quite busy enough for the moment," Nick finished for him, but, seeing Joe's crestfallen face took pity on his brother, "She promised to see us later, in the hour or two we have between the concert and now."

"First though," Mr. Lucas pushed the boys out the door, "You need to sell yourselves to the public."

"Oh pants!" Macy snapped her finger as Nick led her out the door back to the carpet and therefore the limo.

"What?" he whispered through his smile; one arm looped around Joe's shoulders, the other around Macy's waist.

"What with all those backstage shenanigans, I never did get an iron for my dress… I know Joe pointed it out in the arena but… I forgot that this lot of snap-happy fiends would still be stalking us…"

Nick laughed at that, which made the photographers giddy with excitement at the rarity. Someone pulled Joe away, leaving just Nick and Macy in the shot.

"You'd think you never smile, the way they're carrying on," commented Macy. She never had been good at helping him keep up his serious-boy image. Of course the photographers ate his continued laughter up, making him think back to the day he had sat on his bedroom floor and made plans to create photos of just him and Macy. He thought, rather ruefully, that he would certainly be able to find some in the next issue of Tween Weekly… or whatever the French equivalent to that would be. He'd have to set Frankie to snagging a copy.

The cameras went fast after that. Or maybe they just felt fast with his arm around Macy; time did seem to speed up around her. Soon enough though, the pair were dodging around a team of photo crazed lunatics and diving into their limo.

They were only slightly surprised to find their blonde friend already there, waiting for them. Given her presence they were even less surprised at who was already sitting next to her.

"Stella!" Macy half shouted, still not quite over the shock of her friend's very real presence in her life.

"Macy!" Joe mimicked her tone, forgetting for a perilous second that the girl he was mocking happened to hold serious power over the blonde holding onto his arm. He remembered fast.

"Ouch Stells!" he rubbed the spot where she'd elbowed him, "I have a _concert_ tonight."

The other two brothers turned to their father, expecting him to leap to the aide of Joe with some adage about the importance of kidneys in power-sliding.

Instead, Mr. Lucas just shook his head at his boys, "Stella, just try not to bruise him too badly. Joe, leave Macy alone," and returned to his paper.

"I love your father," Macy whispered to Nick as Kevin scooted in beside them.

"Stells!" Kevin reached across the limo to exchange handshakes, "It's been forever! I kept thinking Joe was going to jump off tall buildings from the depression… good thing our stages are only a few feet high, eh?"

"Uhm, yeah?" Stella offered, not really sure what the proper response to that was, "So what's the plan for the next few hours, boys?"

"Well," Nick looked at his brothers to confirm, "We're due at the stage by six, the concert starts at eight and we did the sound check there this morning."

"_Early_ this morning," Kevin groaned, remembering the day's awfully early start, "Even the sun was still snoozing."

"Yeah, but an early sound check means more of the day for us!" Joe reminded his brother, though, from his tone his version of 'us' was far smaller than Kevin's.

"And maybe Stella would like to do some actual styling tonight?" Macy hinted, trying to keep the hope from her voice, "And I could you know… watch? I mean, I'm _sure_ you've missed being the backstage stylist."

"But you've gotten so good at it!" Nick said in mock-horror, "I don't think we'll ever be able to go back to Stella's way of doing things!"

Macy and Stella both laughed, albeit a bit awkwardly. Macy didn't want Stella to think she was taking over her position permanently. Sure she had fun backstage with the boys, but she thought she'd much rather prefer being an actual assistant while Stella did the hard work.

"No Mace," Stella insisted, "I've been working myself too hard over this whole show thing, I think tonight I'll just relax."

All three brothers and Macy raised eyebrows at this; Stella _never_ admitted she was pushing herself too hard without an ulterior motive. Seeing their disbelief Stella sighed.

"Alright, so I'm not _that_ tired, I just want to watch _one_ JONAS concert without having to worry about Joe's tie matching his socks, or Kevin not wearing the right boots…" she admitted.

"But… oh alright," Joe sighed, succumbing to the power of Stella's puppy dog eyes.

"Yay!" she chirped, smiling, "But, guys, I can't really stay after. I mean, I'll come backstage if you can get me a pass, but, I need to be on my way back to New York tomorrow. Our flight is at eight…"

"I think we can get you a pass… but I don't know about tickets," Joe confessed sheepishly.

Macy turned to Nick with a smile, "I bet Mister Mastermind over here already has some picked out."

Nick smiled back at her, "Maybe… I _might_ have ordered two seats in the VIP section for you and Stella…"

"I knew there was a reason we let you live after Madrid," Stella nodded, "Alright boys, I don't know about you but I'm kind of dying for some gelato…"

Their afternoon passed in much that fashion, eating gelato and French fries under umbrellas at a little known café, staring in awe at the Eiffel Tower and taking pictures at its foot. After the first three times that the boys needed to jump behind dumpsters or into small shops to avoid hoards of fan girls, Macy and Stella dragged them into a clothing store and outfitted them in proper disguises. The boys in turn bought Stella and Macy the scarves and berets they kept furtively trying on.

They ended their frivolity at a park with Stella and Macy splitting a crepe while they watched their boys duel with long baguettes, shouting sword commands like "touché" and "en garde."

"I've missed this," Stella admitted, watching Joe parry Nick's side attack.

"The craziness of them?" Macy asked with half a laugh.

"You, them, the madness of touring, all of it," Stella looked at her with a sad smile, "And you my friend have changed!"

"Have not," responded Macy instantly, without really considering the matter.

"Have too!" Stella retorted, "You're _so_ much more comfortable around them now. Even if Kevin and Joe are kind of scared right now, I can see that they're more comfortable around you too. You've been their friend for ages now, but I think this tour really solidified you into their family."

"Oh…" Macy wasn't sure what to say to that so she leaned over and wrapped her arms around her friend, "They've missed you too you know, terribly, really. They'll never say as much to me, but I know it's weird for them for you not to be here."

"Thanks," Stella smiled at her friend, hugging her back, "Now tell me what's going on with you and Nick…"

"Oh Stells," Macy sighed, stretching, "I have absolutely no idea."

"Sounds like Nick," Stella snorted, "Fill me in."

"I don't even know where to start anymore," Macy sighed, "Sometimes I think your whole 'he could like you too' thing isn't so ridiculous, but then, he doesn't make a move. And I mean, it's kind of ridiculous isn't it? Nick Lucas having feelings for little old Macy Misa?"

"I know," Stella bit her lip, "He's usually a hard faller and a fast mover… but Mace, maybe he's different with you because _you're_ different from the rest?"

Macy was saved the need to answer this by the appearance of the boy in question.

"Nick," Stella sighed, "Your clothes are covered in bread crumbs."

He shrugged, "I have to change in a bit for the concert anyway, I'll have them dry-cleaned. But right now, we really do need to get going. You know how dad gets if we're even a little late…"

The girls sighed in the type of unison only achieved by true best friends. They stood, carefully brushing grass off their clothing. Nick gallantly snatched the chocolate covered plate that had held their crepe and tossed it into the nearest garbage pail. Then the three of them walked to where Kevin and Joe, their baguettes disassembled, were wrestling in the grass.

"Dear God," Stella gasped as she got a good look at their outfits, and was about to burst into a true Stella-style-rant when Macy placed a hand on her arm and shot her a clear 'please, let me,' look. Stella nodded with a small smile, interested to see how the boys were _really_ fairing under Macy's tutelage.

Macy tossed out her hair and coughed loudly. The sound caused both wrestlers to look up - something they had previously neglected, and upon seeing the familiar cross-arm stance of their assistant stylist, to jump to their feet. Macy silently praised fashion gods that the boys had yet to realize how she really _was_ over the whole Madrid thing when it came to it.

She cleared her throat and put on her most threatening glare, "You are _aware,_ boys, that you're still in the outfits we picked out for you this afternoon?"

Joe and Kevin blinked at each other.

"The outfits that were hand selected by your tireless stylist and her very awesome assistant? The ones purchased from the love in our hearts to protect your _safety_?" Macy hinted, "I think you owe Stella an apology."

Like scared kindergarteners the pair shuffled their feet and spoke together in tiny voices, "Yes Macy, Sorry Stella."

"Good," Macy smirked, "Now, brush yourselves off the best you can and get in the limo. We'll talk punishment later." They raced off, Stella and Nick trailing behind.

"Punishment?" the blonde asked, raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

Macy nodded with mock-seriousness, "They'll be doing my bus-chores at the very least… I might make them bring me coffee too, depends on how high the fan-recognition factor is wherever we are tomorrow."

Stella laughed, "I'd best help them brush those clothes off or they'll ruin the limo seats… now, don't dawdle too much you two!"

Nick smiled as Stella retreated, "No punishment for me then? I _am_ covered in bread-crumbs."

Macy laughed, "Yes, but no grass stains… and I think you might have repaid any misdeeds you've ever done today, with Stella, and all that. I'm way too happy to really punish you."

"Really?" Nick positively beamed, he had Macy happy, _really_, really happy. It was a rather splendid feeling, to know that he had influenced her happiness in a positive way for once.

"Really," she smiled up at him, and for a heart stopping second realized how close together they were standing. Rather than stepping away as she normally would have, Macy thought back to the conversation she'd had with Stella earlier. She needed to be different.

So she stepped closer.

"I was right then?" Nick asked in a rush, hardly oblivious to her closeness, and not really sure what to do with it, or rather, what she _wanted_ him to do with it, "I was right to bring her here? I wasn't sure you know, that that's what would make you happy. But I thought maybe…"

She reached forward and wrapped both arms around his middle, "You were absolutely right. I… needed her."

"Oh," he looked down and instinctively put his arms around her. They were so close now. Close enough to kiss. Their lips almost touching. He could feel her breath. He leaned forward, they were almost, almost

"OI! We need to _leave_ guys… Oh. Oh no. Uh, I'm sorry…"

If Nick could have punched Kevin and gotten away with it and not felt guilty later, he so would have. Macy too looked rather upset, but he wasn't sure if that was because of how they hadn't kissed or because they almost had. They disentangled themselves from each other quickly.

"It's alright Kev'," he lied shakily, and Macy nodded mutely. She looked at him once, meeting his eyes with a mix of confusion and frustration before moving quickly (not running away of course) in the opposite direction.

Nick watched her go.

"Really Kev', it's fine, it's alright," he muttered, following her at a distance.

"It's _so_ not alright," Kevin groaned to himself, whacking his forehead with his palm, as he trailed after the couple, "Stella is going to _kill_ me."

Macy sat in her seat in the limo beside Nick in silence. The rest of the car prattled on about fashions and the latest episodes of So Random and Mackenzie Falls. She however, sat with her eyes out the window and her thoughts on the boy beside her. Paris would have been perfect for a true fairytale kiss and a fairytale kiss would have made Paris perfect. Instead she'd have to settle for practically perfect… and perhaps accidentally misplace Kevin's favorite paparazzi shades the next time they went on an outing.

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a/n: I know what some of my reviews for this chapter are going to be. The only thing I can do to appease you lot is promise 'next chapter.' This being say, please review anyway =). It really does make me want to write more and faster when I receive reviews.


	6. Fairytale Finish

_a/n: Hello readers! Prepare to see that some small plot devices have merit after all as we come to the end of this story. Thanks to all of my lovely reviewers! =)_

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UnOfficially Keeping Them Sane

6 - Fairytale Finish

Nick glared at the magazines Joe had so neatly fanned out on the small table in front of him. Joe was never neat without purpose, and guessing by the cover shots of almost every periodical on the bus's table, Nick could guess what the purpose was. To further his belief that this sudden upswing in his brother's neatness was indicative of something along the lines of an intervention, both Joe and Kevin slid into the seats across from him, faces set and determined.

"What?" Nick asked, too tired to properly demand things.

Joe waved a hand at the glossy covers, "This."

Nick looked down again, searching for something more in the covers than what was obvious. He didn't see anything.

"Good grief Nicholas!" Kevin cried in obvious exasperation, "Don't play slow with us."

"Yeah dude," Joe nodded, continuing their united front, "You've claimed to be almost genius for far to long to get away with _that_."

Nick sighed and picked up the topmost magazine. It was emblazoned with the saying "Lovebirds in the City of Love!" in spiraling pink letters that dripped off the edge of a rather decent picture of Macy and Nick on the red carpet. He could see that the next magazine had a cover shot that focused on Macy alone, completely covering Nick's body with questions like 'Who is this mystery girl?' and 'Why is her dress so wrinkled if she's a stylist?'

"You want to talk about Macy," Nick sighed. He looked out the window to his left, watching as the countryside passed him by.

"Yes!" Kevin and Joe answered together, making a face as they did so. They hated speaking in unison.

"Nick," Kevin took on the airs of the older, more mature brother, "Almost all of the newsstands think you two are dating. I've received _six_ calls from Hollywood this morning demanding why our famous friends didn't know this was coming."

"That's not even counting texts, emails, and messenger pigeons," added Joe.

"Yeah," Kevin nodded, "Nick, _everyone_ who's seen you two together knows that you should _be_ together… except, it seems, for you and Macy. So, when are you going to make a real move? And yes, I am aware that I might have interrupted you making a move back in Paris, but dude, that was _days_ ago and now you two are barely speaking!"

Nick groaned, "I don't really know Kevin…"

"What?" demanded Joe.

"Think about it," Nick rationalized, "We've almost kissed or something or whatever a dozen times already."

"And this is bad because…?" Kevin pressed.

"Because despite everything, we're still just two best friends," Nick reminded him softly, "I kind of think that's all she wants from me."

"What?" demanded Joe again.

"She hasn't made a move either!" Nick pointed out quickly.

Kevin sighed, "She's a _girl_ Nick; technically it's not their job to make a move."

Joe nodded, "Nick, I don't really get what the problem is. Anyone who spends maybe five minutes with the two of you can see that you're totally crushing on each other. And anyone who knows you as well as Kevin and I do knows that this is different than all those other girls."

"Yeah," Kevin agreed, "Normally you fall hard and fast and make a total fool of yourself."

"Now you're taking it painfully slow and _still_ making a fool of yourself," Joe had never been one to mince words, "Dude, girls don't wait around forever, and anyone with eyes can see that she _so_ wants to be more than friends with you."

Nick looked at Joe, intrigued against his will, "What do you mean?"

Kevin and Joe both rolled their eyes, "Dude," Kevin sighed dramatically, "Before Paris and that almost kiss thing, she was sending out serious signals. You mentioned she got jealous over the possibility of another girl."

"And she's been totally okay with you using her as arm candy at events… didn't you wonder why? She's a JONAS-media expert, she knew these photos were going to surface," Joe added.

"And then there's the way she looks at you…" Kevin batted his eyelashes in imitation of the fairytale romances they'd all seen on TV.

Nick blinked, slightly perturbed at his brothers, "Yeah… but I don't know guys. All those signs you speak of have stopped completely since Paris."

Kevin threw his hands into the air in exasperation "Because you haven't _talked to each other since Paris!"_

"Dude!" Joe's hands joined Kevin's in the air, "You do _not_ almost kiss a girl and then just stop talking to her! It's been a _week_!"

"Five days," Nick corrected automatically.

"Same difference," Joe shrugged, "You need to get your butt in gear and make a move!"

"But, I don't know…"

From where he had been hiding (eavesdropping) on the stairs, Frankie decided that he had heard enough. He stealthily pulled himself back up into the top level, placing his (Macy's) camera carefully back into his pocket. His brothers were idiots. Nick obviously had no idea what he was doing, and Kevin and Joe weren't very good at brotherly wake-up calls.

"Stupid idiots," Frankie muttered to himself, pulling his laptop out of his backpack. He whistled to himself as he passed his brothers' bunks and then slipped into the lounge.

He was only somewhat surprised to find it already occupied.

"Oh!" Macy looked up from her seat at the sound of the opening door, stomping down the hope that it was Nick come to _finally_ talk to her. It wasn't a completely irrational hope she reminded herself, they had had confrontations of that nature in the lounge before.

She wasn't, she assured herself; disappointed that it was Nick's younger brother who slid in across from her. Not disappointed at all.

"Hello Frankie," she said softly. The little man frowned to himself, Macy looked sad. Nick really _was_ an idiot.

"Hey Macy!" he forced a smile, "What's up?"

"I'm watching Mackenzie Falls," she nodded at her own computer, "Stella told me I simply must catch up and email her my reactions."

Frankie blinked, "You're still watching that show? Even _after_ you met Chad Dylan Cooper?"

Macy giggled, but the giggle died fast. Frankie was not a fan of a sad Macy. It wasn't her style to be somber and Frankie preferred upbeat, happy people to depressed people. If Macy and Nick kept up this forced martyrdom style over the rest of the tour, Frankie might just lose it.

He was trying to figure out how best to say 'my brother is an idiot but he's in love with you so cut him some slack' when his phone buzzed.

"Text from someone special?" Macy raised a sisterly eyebrow at Frankie.

He checked and shook his head, "Just Kevin," he answered. He read quickly, thankful that Kevin wasn't one for blundering texts. 'Is Macy in the lounge?' He speed-texted back an affirmative answer and then, knowing that this probably meant that Nick was coming in, he 'accidentally' dropped the camera out of his pocket and into the couch cushions. Macy was so preoccupied with the drama on her computer that she didn't see the boy flick the recording button or wedge it into position in such a way that, although the visual was sacrificed, the audio wouldn't be smothered.

"Gotta go!" he said aloud, slinging his laptop under his arm and scurrying out the door. He had debated a tuck-and-roll exit, but decided against such theatrics - he was much too mature for such childish behavior.

Nick passed Frankie on his way to the lounge but didn't stop to say hello. The songwriter was feeling far too queasy to stop to hear another version of the 'you're an idiot' speech he'd just been dealt.

He hesitated outside the lounge door and smiled wryly at the tremendous sense of déjà vu that gnawed at him as he pushed the door open.

"Hi, Macy," he said softly as he flopped into the seat across from her.

"Nick," she acknowledged coolly. Macy wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to say to him just then, he'd spent almost a week ignoring her after that almost-kiss. It hadn't exactly been a great week for her self-esteem.

"Mace, we need to-"

"Nick, I swear to God, if you say 'we need to talk' I am going to take my computer and bash you over the head with it." Macy wasn't sure where her rage was coming from. Well, she knew it had to do with the boy's complete idiocy, but she didn't know why it was spilling out before he actually got the chance to explain. The sensible (smaller) part of Macy's brain poked her overwhelming rage, trying to knock some sense into her. Macy squashed that sensible part. She was angry.

"Uh…" Nick hadn't expected her to be so livid. Somehow he had sort of thought that she'd be so happy that he _wasn't_ avoiding her that she would miraculously forget about the past week in which he _had_ avoided her.

"Yeah, I thought so," Macy could feel the tour bus slowing down and snapped her laptop shut.

"Listen, Macy," Nick began, but once again she beat him to the punch.

"No, _you_ listen Nick," the bus had stopped and she was on her feet, "Something almost happened in Paris, you and I both know it. _Something almost happened_. And then you decided… well I'm not quite sure where your head went, but, you know what? I don't care! I don't care one smidge! You can't treat me like this! You can't just send me all these mixed signals. You can't make me think things, you can't… can't…"

"Can't what?" he demanded, grabbing her hand, his voice low, "What did I make you think?"

"You…" she looked a him, and for a long, long moment their eyes caught and held.

"You know what?" she muttered, "It doesn't matter. I'm no Stella. I'm not waiting around for you to wake up and see what's always been here."

She tugged her hand from his grasp and pushed past him out of the lounge, slamming the door behind her.

He stood dumbstruck for a moment before remembering to shout after here.

"I'm _awake to you_!" he shouted helplessly at the closed door, "I'm awake! Awake!" he repeated over and over, his volume steadily decreasing. It was only when he saw her through the windows as she pranced across the parking lot into the hotel that he remembered that the lounge was soundproofed. She couldn't hear him at all.

Later, in the hotel room, Nick found his brothers unsympathetic to his plight.

"You didn't chase after her!" Joe demanded incredulously, "Dude, that's like, Girls 101. _Every_ girl wants to be chased after."

"I shouted after her," Nick offered defensively. He _hated_ it when Joe was right.

"From a soundproofed room," Kevin reminded him, shaking his head as if he couldn't quite believe it himself.

Frankie leaned over and whacked Nick on the back of the head.

"Frankie!" Nick turned to glare at his younger brother who just shrugged. Frankie had been quick to get his (Macy's) camera back after spying Nick leaving the lounge. He had used his time alone in his room wisely, catching up on the footage. Since the viewing Frankie had strongly felt that Nick needed a good thwonk to the head; Frankie might only be a kid, but thanks to the combined efforts of Macy, Stella and his mother he had seen more romantic comedies than Joe and Nick combined. Nick had completely blown the moment and it was obvious.

"Why'd you hit me!" Nick demanded.

"It was necessary," Frankie explained shortly, "You could've fixed all of this just by kissing her when she was yelling at you, you know? That's what they do in the movies."

"The Frankster has a definite point here," Joe nodded, "The hero always shuts up the ranting heroine with a kiss."

"You two didn't hear her going on about mixed signals and making her think things," Nick noted sulkily. Then he had a glorious thought.

"Hey!" he sat up straighter, "She must have feelings for me, right? I mean, she wouldn't have ranted like that if she didn't. Logically she must think of me in that way, correct?"

This time it was Kevin who whacked Nick on the head, "Of _course_ she likes you. Now stop trying to turn this into a good thing and start trying to figure out how to fix this!"

Frankie took this as his cue to look busy. He wanted to hear what his brothers thought up, but knew that whatever cockamamie plan they created was destined to failure without a little bit of Frankie-magic. So he scooted over to the desk and, positioning his computer so the trio couldn't see the screen, plugged Macy's camera in. He had a lot of work to do.

Of course, Frankie couldn't resist putting in his two cents every time one of his brothers had a particularly stupid idea, so before he knew it he and his equipment were sitting in the hallway, glaring at the door they'd just closed on his face.

"Fine, be that way," he muttered, dragging his stuff down the hall into his parents' suite. Two hours later, Kevin found him there in front of the television with a bowl of popcorn.

"Come on Little Man," his older brother ruffled his hair, "It's time to go to the concert…"

Frankie scrambled to his feet and pulled on the backpack he'd slid his computer in before.

"Does Nick have a plan?" he asked Kevin as the older boy led him down the hall.

"An inkling of one," Kevin answered vaguely, pulling Frankie into the elevator.

"Any key points in the plan?" Frankie pried, wanting to know how he could be useful.

Kevin shook his head, "So long as Macy watches tonight, and you know she always does, we'll be set."

"Famous last words," muttered Frankie under his breath, but he was smiling; he knew how he would help. He liked having a place in the plan, even if the other plan-users probably wouldn't know about it until after all was said and done. A good secret agent was neither seen nor heard after all.

The limo ride to the concert hall was silent and tense. Macy had pointedly not sat in her usual seat beside Nick which disrupted the normal seating arrangements and thus made the rest of the car's occupants feel especially awkward.

Once they reached the hall, the tension didn't alleviate. Macy quickly fell back upon her favorite coping mechanism - fleeing. She was exceptionally glad for her JONAS jacket as she blended in so well with the flocks of other JONAS staffers that she knew no one would try to find her. She snatched her earpiece and radio from the scared looking man behind the setup table and then dove into the nearest pack of jacket-wearing tech stooges she could find. She stayed with them until they passed a ladies' room at which point she slipped out of the pack and into the tiled haven. It was ironic maybe, that after being so mad at Nick for avoiding her all week she was now avoiding him.

"This is different," she reminded herself, talking aloud to strengthen the impact of her pep talk, "He had no reason to avoid me all week." Unless, a little, sick, voice inside her head peeped up, he did. If he didn't like her the way she liked him, then that whole thing in Paris would have been terrifying for him. It would have messed up their friendship completely.

"But," she spoke aloud again, "If he doesn't feel the same way, then what the heck has been up with the mixed signals? And either way, it's done now. I'm done."

Macy stayed safe in the bathroom until she received confirmation that the boys were down in hair and make up. Only then did she go and find her way to their dressing rooms. There she laid out each boy's outfits with careful precision. In Kevin and Joe's dressing rooms she placed post-it notes on their mirrors, both with threats along the lines of 'wear this and exactly this or I'll tell Stella something you _really_ don't want her to know.' In Nick's room she left nothing but clothes. The boys were finishing their styling session by the time she was done, so she turned to return to the safety of the bathroom. It was then that she noticed Frankie, sitting on a bench in the hallway, watching her.

"Hi," she said quietly.

"Hey," he said back, smiling, "Where are you off to? The concert starts in half an hour. Won't the boys be needing you?"

"I think they'll manage alone," she replied tightly, not wanting to admit that she was indeed shirking her responsibilities.

"Really? You're entrusting Kevin with the ability to pick his clothes?" Frankie was momentarily distracted from his intentions by this terrifying piece of news. He loved his older brother, but he wasn't entirely sure that his judgment in the art of style was sound.

"I left a note telling him to wear what I put out and nothing different or I'll tell Stella what _really_ happened to that leather vest she worked so hard on," Macy attempted to offer Frankie a conspiratorial smile, but felt that her efforts probably hadn't worked out all too well.

Frankie looked at her for a long moment, "You're not going to watch the concert." It was a statement of fact, not a question.

Macy blinked at him, thinking that it was pretty obvious that she had no interest in watching Nick do _anything_ just then, hadn't Frankie been paying attention? She might have said as much to him, but the boy surprised her by standing up.

"You need to see something," he said gravely, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the hallway.

"Frankie," she sighed, letting the boy tow her along, "I don't know that now's the time for sight seeing… Can't it wait till we're back at the hotel? I can make popcorn then."

"Now," he said, trying to infuse a powerful air into his boyish voice "is the _only_ time."

"Uh…" Macy raised an eyebrow at the little man, wondering if she'd been letting him watch too many save-the-world movies on the bus.

Frankie pulled her into an office that didn't seem to have seen much use in the past few months. The desk had more than its fair share of dust on it, and the windows were a tidbit grimy. Frankie ignored the dust and set his backpack on the floor beside the creaky swivel chair. From the bag's depths he pulled out his laptop and began to power it up.

"Frankie, _where_ are we?" Macy asked, not really perturbed by the weirdness of a random office, but curious none the less.

"It's a guest office," Frankie explained without looking up, "Dad is technically supposed to use it during however long we spend here. Most acts are only here for the one night though, and the place doesn't see much use unless a group shows for more than one evening. That's when a manager might actually need to get some work done. Last time we were here Dad was having a bobble-head crisis so he actually spent the whole concert in here."

"Bobble-head crisis?" Macy asked, coming behind the desk to watch Frankie click around on the computer.

"They messed up Joe's hair," Frankie looked up with a smirk.

"That's a big crisis," Macy agreed with a touch of a real smile herself, "but, what did you want to show me?"

"This." Frankie loaded a video file but paused it before the picture changed from black.

"What is it?" she asked, hoping that he wasn't wasting her time… ignoring the fact that this was probably more interesting than skulking around the bathroom for the next few hours.

Instead of answering her question, Frankie looked at her with serious eyes, "My brother is a complete and totally idiot."

Macy blinked, "I'm sorry?"

"I mean Nick," Frankie rolled his eyes as if this should have been obvious, "He's head over heels for you and he completely sucks at showing it."

"I'm sorry?" Macy repeated, surely if Nick was head over heels for her he would have done something about it by this point.

Frankie rolled his eyes again but plowed on without pause, "I know he's an idiot, but I also know that you don't really care about that. I mean, you feel the same way about him that he feels about you."

"Uh…" Macy stared down at the boy, "I'm not quite sure you know what you're talking about Frankie. This is serious big kid stuff. I mean, you're obviously aware of how Nick has acted lately, I'm not quite sure you're right about the heels being over his head." She wasn't quite sure why she was talking about this with Frankie. Maybe it was because she needed to say it or that Frankie might actually know what was going on in Nick Lucas's messed up mind.

Frankie laughed, "Trust me. Everyone knows it's true. Aside from you I mean."

"_Why_? Why does everyone think so?" Macy demanded, a little bit of anger resurfacing, "He's been a complete jerk to me all week. Boys who like girls don't _do_ that! He's given me mixed signals since we started this blasted tour."

"Because," Frankie sighed, standing, "Anyone who sees you two together can tell that you're, you know, _together_. And we know you're mad at him right now, really, really mad, but I want you to watch this video, and then, if nothing changes, fine. We'll accept defeat."

Before Macy could ask who 'we' was, Frankie had already slipped out the door.

"Fine summer I'm having," she muttered darkly, settling into the boy's vacated chair, "When children are giving me romantic advice. Yep, Macy Misa is definitely living the high life."

She glared at the boy's computer for a long moment. It wasn't that she wasn't curious - she definitely was, it was just that she was a little bit afraid. Frankie's little monologue had lit a spark of hope in Macy that she could not afford. If he'd built her hopes up and the video ended up being nothing… well maybe it was better not to watch it. Except, what if Frankie knew what he was talking about? He was pretty wise for a kid…

"Agh, why not?" she threw one hand up in frustration with herself, but used the other to quickly click play. She was shocked to see her own face fill the screen.

"What the…" she began, but stopped when she realized what was going on.

Onscreen she watched herself comment on Nick's smart aleckyness and mourn the impending loss of her friends. She heard Nick's voice in the background and, as the scene progressed snickered a bit to herself about how oblivious they both had been.

"This must be from my camera," she realized, as the group on the computer revealed the secret. Macy hadn't realized just how much of the tour had been caught on film and at first, she wasn't quite sure what Frankie intended her to see as the summer passed before her eyes. Then she realized. All the shots, be they in Rome or London or even on the JONAS Jet were of her and Nick. Sure, Joe and Kevin were present, but they were background noise or scenery, they weren't a part of Frankie's point.

Every single moment he had shuffled together profiled her and Nick. Some of the snippets had them painted as cute and heartbreakingly perfect as they did cutesy things, like the whole sleeping incident on the JONAS Jet (she blushed at that one), or the limo ride in Paris. Those were nice, but they didn't really do anything to change the pain in her heart. She had lived those moments firsthand and they didn't really change what she thought she knew.

It was the moments she didn't remember that did it. The stuff that she originally mistook for filler images until she noticed that the so-called filler was filled with Nick looking at her, staring at her when she hadn't even realized it. The way he watched her as she danced across an empty stage or walked atop a stone fence… Macy knew that silly look. It was the way she looked at him.

"Oh my…" she breathed, uncertain what to think really. She knew what the looks meant when they were all presented so neatly as this, but they didn't match up with his actions. Well, they did, but not with how he'd been acting _lately_.

Lost in thought, Macy was surprised by a sudden upswing in the volume. The picture was, oddly enough, a very close image of her shoes. It took her a moment to realize that the volume hadn't been raised, she was just shouting… and then, with a jolt she recognized the speech she was giving.

"…I don't care! I don't care one smidge! You can't treat me like this! You can't just send me all these mixed signals. You can't make me think things, you can't… can't…"

Macy winced as she heard herself shouting, she sounded so hurt and desperate… she hated sounding weak. A very large part of her wanted to fast-forward through this part, but a deeper part of her knew that (however he might have gotten the footage,) Frankie would never have included it if it wasn't important.

"Can't what? What did I make you think?" she heard Nick demand, and for once the question held a glimmer of misinterpretation in it… maybe he was hoping she would say something about the way her heart felt whenever he walked into a room? Was this Frankie's purpose?

"You… You know what? It doesn't matter. I'm no Stella. I'm not waiting around for you to wake up and see what's always been here." Macy felt a small ounce of pride in her self for that line. It had been direct and purposeful and had revealed enough that any boy with sense would see what she was trying to say.

All at once her shoes disappeared from the screen. A second later a door slammed. Macy moved to close the window, knowing that this was how their argument had ended, but Frankie hadn't let her down.

"I'm _awake to you_!" the voice roared through the computer's speakers. Nick's voice, repeating itself over and over until it dropped to nothing and the screen faded to black.

Macy hadn't realized she'd jumped to her feet until she sat down hard.

"He's awake to me," she whispered. It didn't take a (completely brilliant and wonderful) child to figure out what _that_ meant.

For a long moment Macy sat in the dusty chair, spinning in circles, reveling in her newfound information. It was a very pleasant moment until she remembered something important.

"The concert!" she cried. She had taken off her headset when the video had started, but she clipped it back to her ear as she flung the musty door open. Frankie was waiting outside, wearing a hole in the carpet with his incessant pacing. She grabbed him up in a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered, squeezing the boy tight, "Where is he?"

"Onstage," Frankie gasped as he pulled out of Macy's bone crushing hug, "_Run_."

She blinked at him for a long moment, but, throwing caution to the wind, she ran. Ran down the hallways, passing her safe haven bathroom and the dressing rooms. She swerved when she saw Big Man waving at the end of one hallway from the corner of her eye. He was like a landing man at the airport. She was never so glad before that she ran miles and miles everyday at home or that most of the time the hotels they stayed at had had gyms that allowed her to keep in shape.

Big Man clasped her shoulder as she skidded to a halt in front of him, shaking his head.

"What is it with you kids and leaving important things to the last moment?" he asked rhetorically.

"I'm not sure?" Macy asked, panting slightly, "Where are they?"

"They're already on," Big Man tugged her through the double doors that lead backstage. From there Macy could hear the overwhelming screams of the crowd and see, onstage, Nick, Joe and Kevin being lowered from the sky.

"I shouldn't be back here," she looked to Big Man to confirm or deny, but he just rolled his eyes.

"Kids these days…" he muttered but gestured towards a folding chair when Macy continued to raise a questioning eyebrow in his direction. She sat quickly, enjoying the new angle she had for watching the show.

The first two numbers went off without a hitch and she was pleased to note that all three boys were completely dressed in the appropriate attire. She didn't sing along to the music (for the benefit of those nearest to her) but she did bop around in her chair to the beat, she couldn't help the fact that she was so happy or that JONAS was as infectious as ever.

She had just gotten settled into the concert-mode when she saw the techies push in a cart full of water bottles, towels and the boy's costume changes for the encore. It was only then that she thought how awkward it might be for Nick to see her sitting there when there would be no time to talk. Too awkward, and there was no way she could see him and _not_ tell him…

As the last song of the primary set list ended Macy shouted up to Big Man, "I shouldn't be here; I'm going to go…"

She made it halfway to the door when she realized that the boys hadn't come running off as they were supposed to. They were still on stage, trying to quiet the crowd. Curious Macy turned around. From where she stood she could see Nick standing in the center, his guitar hanging precariously onto his back and a microphone in his hand.

"Hello Berlin!" he was saying, and then of course had to wait for the crowds screams to fade again.

Onstage Joe and Kevin exchanged glances; they had tried to talk Nick out of saying that bit to no avail. Kevin spied Macy standing confused by the stage exit from his peripherals. He turned, relieved, to wave at her and shoot her a thumbs-up. She blinked and hesitantly waved back, unsure of what the wave was about but pretty sure that he wanted her to stay put.

The din dulled again and Nick started talking, "Now, some of you might have seen the covers of a few magazines lately… you might have read about how I'm dating this fantastic girl Macy Misa."

Macy's heart stopped. If she hadn't been standing so still already she surely would have fallen over.

"Well," Nick continued once it was quiet again, "that's not true."

Oddly, as though through a very deep mist, Macy smiled at the boos and hisses coming from the audience. She had friends everywhere it seemed.

"See," Nick was walking around the stage now, holding the microphone tightly "I was pretty stupid. I never told Miss Misa that she's the melody to my lyrics. That, without her acting as my inspiration, half of these songs we sing tonight would never have been written. Or that she's the only person in the world that can keep me sane and grounded no matter where we are."

Macy was moving towards the stage through her fog, not really planning or controlling her feet. They took her just to the edge of the wings, where she could see the crowd but most of the crowd could not see her unless they were looking.

"What I'm trying to say," Nick swallowed a really scary lump in his throat and braced himself for whatever was coming next, "is that I never told this perfect, beautiful girl that I'm crazy about her."

The crowd of course erupted at that, the force of the noise causing Joe to wrinkle his face and Kevin to jump back a few steps. Nick however was completely focused on his goal, he knew he couldn't stop or he'd never finish. He had to do this and do it right.

"Thing is guys," he plowed on, "I went and blew it. I was a tremendous idiot, a complete jerk to her. I deserve nothing but Macy's endless disgust, which I'm quite positive, is all I'm ever going to get. I've ruined any chance I've ever had with her."

"Oh," a small voice behind him said, "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

He spun at the voice, not expecting an interruption, and saw her, Macy Misa, standing behind him, Nick Lucas, on a stage facing an audience of thousands. She wasn't quite sure how she had gotten there or what she was doing, but the words kept coming to her and she kept saying them, because they were right.

"Oh Nick," she sighed, careful to make her voice reach his ears alone, "You really are an idiot."

And, wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled his head down to kiss him.

For a long second there was absolute silence in the hall. Then the audience exploded into a cacophony of wolf whistles and cheering.

When retelling the events to Stella, Kevin would swear that Nick and Macy were completely in there own little world, and, had he, the bold older brother, not poked Nick hard in his back, the pair would never have separated. As it was it took a second jab from Joe to return the pair to Earth.

"Are you sure?" Nick whispered to Macy, "You didn't even wait to hear me sing the song I wrote to get you to forgive me."

"I'm sure," she assured him, "but I'd advise you to sing that song anyway… you seriously need to regain some brownie points."

"Oh?"

"Yes," she nodded, smiling cheekily, "Just because I love you, does not mean I forgive you for being such a jerk lately."

"This is very true," he nodded remorsefully; "I was a complete jerk."

"Eh, yeah," she smiled, nothing able to bring her down, "But I'll forgive you… I like a bit of craziness in my life."

"Then I'll always keep you on your toes," he promised.

"And I'll let you know when they touch the ground again," her eyes were shining; she finally understood what it meant to walk on air.

* * *

_a/n: So that's all folks! I know I didn't warn you that this would be the last chapter… I wasn't sure myself I finished it._

_I have no intent to write a sequel, it is my experience that fanfic sequels are never as easy to write as their predecessors. I might however add additional one-shots to this story if the inspiration strikes… but as of now it will be listed as complete on ._

_I will continue writing =), but probably will stick to one-shots in future._

_Reviews mean a lot, whether you just read the whole thing now or have been with me since the beginning._

_Thank you, to all of you who have reviewed, favorited, and/or alerted this thing and stuck with me through long gaps between updates and painful cliffhangers. I hope the ending was everything you wanted. I'll answer any questions you ask in reviews, promise =)_

_always,_

_sfbeliever 3_


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